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To fish in World of Warcraft: Forever, learn Fishing from a fishing trainer, buy a Fishing Pole, and cast into any water to raise your skill toward 300. The new layer is camping: the Fish Bowl at Fishing 20 gives everyone at your campfire 8 percent more stats, and the Fishing Rack at Fishing 140 is meant to add uncommon bloated fish for an hour. As of November 13, 2026 the rack is not delivering. Blizzard has confirmed ongoing problems with it, and players are reporting close to zero bloated fish, so read the rack section before you spend gold on the blueprint.
Seven steps from your first cast to Fishing 300
- Learn Fishing from a fishing trainer and buy a Fishing Pole from a vendor.
- Fish in your starting zone or capital city. Apprentice Fishing caps at 75 and Journeyman at 150, both taught by trainers.
- At Fishing 20, learn the Fish Bowl from your trainer. It is the fishing camp object and it works today.
- Add skill with a better pole, a lure and fishing food so fewer fish get away in higher zones.
- Buy the book Expert Fishing: The Bass and You from Old Man Heming in Booty Bay to raise your cap to 225. It also sells on the auction house.
- At Fishing 140 you can use Blueprint: Fishing Rack, which drops from Gelihast in Blackfathom Deeps. Hold off on buying it until Blizzard fixes the rack.
- At 225, do the quest Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme in Dustwallow Marsh to unlock Artisan Fishing and the 300 cap.
What you need before you start fishing in World of Warcraft: Forever
You only need the skill and a pole to begin. Everything else is optional but makes the climb smoother.
- A fishing pole. The basic Fishing Pole is sold by vendors. The Strong Fishing Pole gives +5 Fishing, needs Fishing 10 and is also vendor sold.
- Lures. A lure adds Fishing skill to your pole for a few minutes. Shiny Bauble gives +25, Nightcrawlers +50, Bright Baubles +75 and the Aquadynamic Fish Attractor +100.
- Fishing food (optional). Cooked fish dishes add Fishing skill, from Loch Frenzy Delight at +3 up to Filet of Redgill and Spinefin Halibut at +18.
- The Expert Fishing book. Needed to go past 150. Old Man Heming in Booty Bay sells it and it can be traded, so check the auction house first if Stranglethorn is a long trip.
- A campfire. Cooking makes the Basic Campfire. You need one nearby to place a Fish Bowl or a Fishing Rack.
Fishing skill caps: 75, 150, 225 and 300
Fishing has four ranks. Trainers teach the first two, a book teaches the third, and a quest teaches the last.
- Apprentice, cap 75: taught by fishing trainers.
- Journeyman, cap 150: taught by fishing trainers.
- Expert, cap 225: learned from the book Expert Fishing: The Bass and You, sold by Old Man Heming in Booty Bay. We found the price, 1 gold, in one source only.
- Artisan, cap 300: the quest Nat Pagle, Angler Extreme, from Nat Pagle in Dustwallow Marsh. It sends you to catch four specific fish around the world, and it needs Fishing 225.
Your skill against the zone decides how many fish get away, which is why lures matter. Several players fishing level 40 and higher zones at Fishing 225 report using a +75 or +100 lure to reach an effective 300 so that nothing escapes.
Fishing poles, lures and food that add skill
These are the poles we could confirm in two places, the Warcraft Wiki and a second profession guide.
- Fishing Pole: no bonus, sold by fishing vendors.
- Blump Family Fishing Pole: +3, from an Alliance quest in Darkshore.
- Strong Fishing Pole: +5, needs Fishing 10, sold by fishing vendors.
- Big Iron Fishing Pole: +20, needs Fishing 100, from Shellfish Traps off the Desolace coast.
- Nat Pagle’s Extreme Angler FC-5000: +25, needs Fishing 100, from a Horde quest in The Hinterlands.
- Arcanite Fishing Pole: +35, needs Fishing 300, a Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza reward.
Forever also has a Legacy talent for anglers called Luremaster, which is meant to give extra fish while a lure is active. One beta tester on the official forums said it had no visible effect. We could not find a live test, so do not respec for it on our word.
The Fish Bowl: Fishing 20, 8 percent stats for everyone at the fire
The Fish Bowl is the first fishing camp object and it is the one that reliably works. Trainers teach it at Fishing 20. Place it next to a campfire and you and anyone sitting nearby gain 8 percent increased stats. It does not stack with Blessing of Kings.
- Reagents: the Warcraft Wiki lists 1 Raw Brilliant Smallfish and 1 Empty Vial.
- Cooldown: all camping objects share a one hour cooldown, so placing a bowl locks out your other camp objects for an hour.
- Limit: a Basic Campfire holds three objects, one per player.
Our guide to camp buffs and the Pouch of Violet Dust covers what the other professions add to the same fire.
How the Fishing Rack is supposed to work
The Fishing Rack is the second fishing camp object. Its tooltip says it grants the ability to catch uncommon fish for one hour, provides Fishing skill lures, and gives all the benefits of a Fish Bowl. It needs a campfire nearby and can be placed over a Fish Bowl to replace it.
- Requirement: Fishing skill 140. That is a skill requirement, not a character level.
- How you learn it: Blueprint: Fishing Rack drops from Gelihast in Blackfathom Deeps. It is not sold by a vendor in the live game. In the beta Blizzard put it on a test vendor, which is where older advice to “buy the blueprint” comes from.
- Drop rate: collected loot data lists it at 0.75 percent. That figure comes from the beta database and we could not confirm it a second way. One level 36 Paladin reports soloing Gelihast in 4 to 5 minute runs.
- Reagents: 2 Simple Wood, 1 Crystal Vial and 2 Raw Mithril Head Trout per rack.
- Uncommon fish: these are the bloated fish, such as Bloated Redgill or Bloated Mud Snapper. You open them for gems and the occasional piece of jewelry. One player report says they are bind on pickup.
- Next tier: the Fishing Hut at Fishing 300 does the same for rare fish. The Warcraft Wiki does not list a source for its blueprint yet.
The Fishing Rack is still broken on live as of November 13
Blizzard’s November 10 hotfix notes fixed one rack bug, a condition mismatch that stopped racks from handing out lures to eligible players. The same notes say the developers are aware of other ongoing issues with the Fishing Rack, including more cases of the “There is no loot” error. They do not mention the catch rate.
Players report two separate problems.
The Uncommon Fishing buff often does not apply
Many players place a rack and only get the Fish Bowl buff. A failed rack still starts the shared one hour camping cooldown. These are the workarounds players say have worked, none of them confirmed by Blizzard:
- Equip your fishing pole and apply a lure before you touch the rack.
- Sit at the fire and cast while seated.
- Walk away from the camp and come back.
- Several players only got the buff once their Fishing was at the cap for their rank, for example 225 of 225. Others at the cap still did not get it.
Two players also report that the Pouch of Violet Dust does not add its extra hour to the rack’s buff.
With the buff active, bloated fish almost never appear
A player tally posted on r/wowforever on November 13 added up every written report it could find. Beta sessions in October averaged about 4.7 bloated fish per hour. Live reports from November 7 to 11 came to 5 bloated fish in almost 15 hours. Individual reports match that: 5 hours in Tanaris at an effective 300 skill with none, 8 hours in one spot with none, and one fish in about 90 minutes for a player who kept trying.
Players have also caught bloated fish with no rack buff at all, in Feralas, Thunder Bluff and Teldrassil, so the buff may not be doing anything at the moment. Nobody has confirmed whether open water or fish pools are better. Reports conflict.
What a bloated fish holds, and why the rack is not a gold farm yet
The few live bloated fish players have opened held low value gems: a Moss Agate in Stranglethorn, a Citrine, and a Shadowgem twice. In the beta, a tester who caught 11 Bloated Redgill in an hour at a lake in Feralas got 1 Citrine, 4 Star Rubies, 3 Aquamarines, 2 rings and a necklace, which is the payout people bought the blueprint for.
At the live rate that payout is not reachable. Players making gold from fishing right now point to floating wreckage and fish pools instead, and one reports about 5 gold an hour in Tanaris from pearls and Stonescale Eel without counting any bloated fish. Prices are still settling this early after launch, so treat any gold per hour number as a snapshot.
Five fishing mistakes that waste time in World of Warcraft: Forever
- Buying the Fishing Rack blueprint for profit today. Wait for a hotfix that mentions bloated fish.
- Reading “140” as a character level. The rack needs Fishing skill 140.
- Assuming the rack buff applied. Check your buffs for Uncommon Fishing right after placing it. A failed rack still costs the one hour camping cooldown.
- Stopping at 150. You need the Expert book from Booty Bay or the auction house to keep gaining skill.
- Fishing a high zone without a lure. Fish get away when your skill is too low for the zone.
World of Warcraft: Forever fishing FAQ
How do I start fishing in World of Warcraft: Forever?
Learn Fishing from a fishing trainer, buy a Fishing Pole from a vendor, equip it and cast into any water. Apprentice Fishing takes you to 75.
What is the Fishing Rack in World of Warcraft: Forever?
It is a camp object for Fishing 140. Placed by a campfire, it is meant to let you catch uncommon bloated fish for an hour, hand out lures, and give the Fish Bowl’s 8 percent stats. The blueprint drops from Gelihast in Blackfathom Deeps.
Why is my Fishing Rack not giving a buff?
It is a known problem. Blizzard’s November 10 hotfix notes say the team is aware of ongoing Fishing Rack issues. Players suggest equipping your pole and a lure first, sitting at the fire and casting, or leaving the camp and coming back.
Where do I get the Expert Fishing book?
Old Man Heming in Booty Bay sells Expert Fishing: The Bass and You. The book can be traded, so it also shows up on the auction house. It raises your cap from 150 to 225.
Is the Fishing Rack worth buying right now?
Not for gold. Live reports collected by players add up to about one bloated fish every three hours with the buff active, against four or five an hour in the beta.
What does the Fish Bowl do?
It gives you and players sitting near your campfire 8 percent increased stats for an hour. Trainers teach it at Fishing 20, and it does not stack with Blessing of Kings.
World of Warcraft: Forever fishing checklist
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Source & credit
This guide started from a beta video by Warcraft Forever Gold, and we rechecked every detail against the live game on November 13, 2026. Watch the video for a look at rack fishing during the beta:
