FISHING

Oily Blackmouth off Westfall

Westfall, the south shore / level 10 to 20 / fish for the alchemists / alone

I don't like water. It's cold, it gets into your boots and things live in it that bite. The south shore of Westfall is the one place I make an exception, because the sand is warm and nobody there wants money from me. I bought a Fishing Pole for 23 copper, sat down near Kriggon Talsone and caught half a bag of Oily Blackmouth before dark. I had no idea what they were for. I was carrying them to a vendor in Sentinel Hill when an alchemist stopped me in the road and bought the lot.

Why it pays

A vendor gives 4c for an Oily Blackmouth. The auction house gives price unknown, because the fish is an alchemist's reagent. Two of them and an Empty Vial make a Blackmouth Oil, which every alchemy trainer teaches at Alchemy 80. Two oils, a Stranglekelp and a Leaded Vial make a Free Action Potion, so each of those potions eats four fish. The loot tables add one more thing. Every blackmouth school in our data gives a Stranglekelp one cast in twenty, and Stranglekelp is the potion's third reagent.

What you need

Christopher Hewen at Sentinel Hill sells the pole, Shiny Bauble and both kinds of vial. Our data doesn't say which fishing skill the Westfall schools want. The oil needs Alchemy 80. The potion needs Alchemy 150 and Recipe: Free Action Potion, which costs 18 silver and comes a few at a time from Soolie Berryfizz in Ironforge, Ulthir in Darnassus and Kor'geld in Orgrimmar. For cooking, Kriggon Talsone sells Recipe: Rainbow Fin Albacore for 4 silver. It needs Cooking 50 and turns Raw Rainbow Fin Albacore into Rainbow Fin Albacore.

Where

The south-west shore, a walk from the flight point at Sentinel Hill. The murlocs and crawlers on that beach are level 17 and 18, which is more than most of Westfall. The travellers say the Horde has blackmouth water of its own at Ratchet.

How

1. Buy the pole, a stack of Shiny Baubles and some Empty Vials at Sentinel Hill.
2. Fish a blackmouth school when one shows on the water. When it's empty, walk on along the shore.
3. Keep everything that comes up, the Stranglekelp most of all.
4. In town, look at the live box. If two fish and a vial cost less than the oil, make oil.
5. Sell fish, oil or potions on the auction house.

What can go wrong

On the second evening a Tidehunter came out of the water behind me and I ran back to Sentinel Hill with the pole still in my hand. The price of the fish swings more from realm to realm than anything else in this chapter, so look at the live box before you give it an evening. The potion recipe sells out, because the vendors hold only a few.

BASTIAN'S VERDICT Quiet work by the sea, and it pays as long as the fish goes to the auction house. If you fish here more than twice, learn Alchemy 80.