Winning The Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Extravaganza

Last updated 2007-08-14

Introduction

I’ve participated 4 times in this event on a medium population server and I’ve won twice. One of the times I was late and didn’t have time to get to my preferred spot when the contest started. The other time I didn’t win I was fishing my 39th fish (out of 40) when the winner was announced, so I was close. Therefore, I think there’s some merit to the strategy described below.

The Event

The STV fishing extravaganza is held in Stranglethorn Vale every Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. server time. Anyone can participate, though it’s recommended that you’re at least level 40 (being 60+ and owning an epic mount is preferred) and have a fishing skill of at least 130. A base fishing skill of 200+ is even better, since you’ll otherwise miss some catches unless you apply baits which slows you down.

You don’t need to sign up or pick up a quest or anything. At 2 p.m. an announcement will be made in all of STV that the event is starting. At that time schools of tastyfish will spawn around the coasts. At that point there are 2 goals to achieve.

The Objectives

There are two objectives to the whole event:

Catch 40 Speckled Tastyfish and turn them in to Riggle Bassbait before anyone else. This completes the quest "Master Angler" which awards a choice of Arcanite Fishing Pole and Hook of the Master Angler (note: you do not have to pick up the quest before you start catching the fish).
Catch any or all of the following fish and turn them in to Fishbot 5000 to complete a quest for each type of fish.
- Brownell’s Blue Striped Racer (completes the quest "Rare Fish - Brownell’s Blue Striped Racer" which awards Nat Pagle’s Extreme Anglin’ Boots)
- Dezian Queenfish (completes the quest "Rare Fish - Dezian Queenfish" which awards High Test Eternium Fishing Line)
- Keefer’s Angelfish (completes the quest "Rare Fish - Keefer’s Angelfish" which awards Lucky Fishing Hat)

All of the above fish can ONLY be caught from school of tastyfish which spawn around the coasts of Stranglethorn Vale during the fishing event.

You’ll benefit from a good strategy when trying to win the main event which is, of course, the "Master Angler" quest. Catching any of the rare fish only requires a lot of patience and fishing from school of tastyfish. There’s nothing you can do to improve your chances for catching any of the rare fish, so you just have to grind it out.

How I Won

Here’s what I did to win the STV fishing extravaganza in 27 minutes on a medium population PvP server with my level 70 hunter.

I set my hearthstone at Booty Bay. This lets you fish anywhere in the zone without worrying how to get back fast. Make sure the HS is not on cooldown.
I equipped my Riding Crop and Medallion of The Alliance to ride faster and have a better chance at surviving ganking.
I started at the very north west of the coast and followed the coast south, fishing from pools along the way. I shared a couple of pools with another hunter until he left.
A bit north of Grom’gol Base Camp I turned and backtracked to see if any pools had respawned. I decided I had to take a risk to have a chance of winning the contest so I swam out to the large island at 21,21 (coordinates), also known as The Vile Reef. I went around it and found a couple of pools.
Then I swam back to the main land and headed north until I was as close as possible to Yojamba Isle and swam to it. I figured few would be willing to swim out to the islands because of the risk of wasting precious time swimming. I was right and it was empty. Much to my surprise it was full of pools, around 8 or so, and it was no problem to get the remaining fish from here.
Then I just hearthed to BB and turned in the quest to the goblin at the dock outside the inn. (Be sure to choose your reward quickly as you haven’t won until you’ve choosen a reward and completed the quest.

The second time I just stayed on the Yojamba Isle all the time and I always had pools to fish from except at the very end when I had to wait 2-3 agonizing minutes for a pool to spawn. But I won in 24 minutes nevertheless.

Once a winner has been announced most people stop fishing, so it’s easier to focus on the rare fish afterwards.

I think a good strategy may be to start on the north west coast and fish all the easy pools first, if only to prevent others getting the easy catches. Then move on to Yojamba Isle and hope that you’re alone and you’ll have a good chance of winning. Another strategy would be to start on Yojamba Isle. If you find yourself alone there you’ll have a huge advantage over everyone else (this was all I did on my second win). Two of the pools there were so close together that the line could land in either one, and once I had finished one it respawned before my eyes as I was fishing from the other one!

If you have an ability such as eagle eye or any item that lets you look far into the distance you can use that to scout the islands for pools of fish and other players.

A Word About Outside Help

If you’re so inclined, you could ask a friend or "mercenary" to gank every other player of the opposite faction to eliminate some of the competition. The benefits are dubious, though, as someone in your own faction could then fish undisturbed from those pools. Another suggestion I’ve read is to have a warlock and another friend find pools and summon you there. While that seems viable, I don’t think it’s too realistic for most people. But if you can get it to work, go for it.

Final Words

Let me know how these strategies work for you!