Fishing

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This article is about the fishing skill. For information on training fishing, see fishing training (F2P) (P2P).
For the music track, see Fishing (music track).
Worlds Icon.png The official world for Community Fishing Training is world 22 (P2P).
Fishing.png
Audio options icon.png
Level up music (1-49)
Audio options icon.png
Level up music (50-99)

Fishing is a gathering skill which involves catching fish. Higher Fishing levels allow for the utilisation of different mechanisms of Fishing as well as the ability to catch a larger selection of fish. Caught fish may be cooked through the Cooking skill to create food which may be used to regain health during combat.

History[edit | edit source]

The fishing skill was released on 11 June 2001, along with Karamja and the Pirate's Treasure quest. It was part of a large update that complemented the Cooking skill. This update added many of the fish that are currently found in free-to-play, including shrimp, salmon, and lobster. In addition to the fishing spots on Karamja, spots in Draynor Village and Port Sarim were added.

On 27 February 2002, a members subscription service was created. Along with many new quests and fishing areas, big net fishing was released, which allowed players to catch bass, mackerel, and cod. In addition, players would sometimes fish up a casket. On 17 June 2002, the Fishing Guild was released. The Fishing Trawler minigame was released on 28 July 2003. It allowed players to fish for manta rays and sea turtles.

On 3 July 2007, Barbarian Fishing was added to the game. This included heavy rod fishing and barbarian hand fishing. Heavy rod fishing allows players to catch leaping trout, leaping salmon and leaping sturgeon. Barbarian hand fishing gives the ability to fish using bare hands, as opposed to using a harpoon. Barbarian hand fishing also gives Strength experience.

On 17 September 2009, the fishing skill was updated drastically by the release of the Living Rock Caverns. Players could fish for cavefish and rocktail, two of the highest-healing fish in the game. Fish Flingers, the first fishing distraction and diversion, was released on 23 March 2010. Less than a month later, Dungeoneering was introduced, which released ten more different kinds of fish only caught in Daemonheim.

On 5 March 2018, Deep Sea Fishing was added to the game. This brought with it the Deep Sea Fishing hub and new fish such as magnetic minnow, green and blue jellyfish and sailfish, as well as new methods of obtaining fish previously exclusive to the Fishing Trawler. The Deep Sea Fishing Hub also hosts new random events that grant fishing related buffs and access to the Travelling Merchant's Shop selling expensive and rare items, such as Uncharted island maps.

Fishing Supplies[edit | edit source]

Locations of fishing shops where players can buy supplies are:

Free-to-play[edit | edit source]

Members[edit | edit source]

Equipment[edit | edit source]

Players need certain types of equipment depending on what fish they want to catch.

Net Fishing/Crayfish cage[edit | edit source]

A player fishing with a small net.

The first few fish players can catch require nets, except for crayfish, which require a crayfish cage. Fishing nets can only be used in the seas. Free players can only use small fishing nets while members can also use big fishing nets. The big nets allow players to catch different, higher-level fish and sometimes items such as boots, seaweed, or caskets. When a player has found a fishing spot, they can then use their net if the option 'net fishing spot' is available.

Fishing rods and bait fishing[edit | edit source]

A player fishing with a rod.

Fishing rods are required to fish for many mid-level fish. Fishing rods can be used in both rivers and seas. Along with a fishing rod, players also need fishing bait (or living minerals if they fish rocktail) to attract fish. Bait can be bought in stores (3gp each at Port Sarim fishing shop), but they can also be obtained by some monsters. When a player has found a fishing spot, they can then use their fishing rod if the option 'bait fishing spot' is available. For every fish you catch, you lose one piece of bait. They are used to catch lots of different fish, including sardines, herring, pike and more. There is also another type of rod, the oily fishing rod. However, only members can use this rod. It is required to fish lava eels and is needed in the Heroes' Quest.

Another rod is the barbarian rod, which is used to catch leaping trout, leaping salmon, and leaping sturgeon, during and after Barbarian training.

Fly fishing rods and feathers - Lure fishing[edit | edit source]

Fly fishing is also required to fish for certain mid-level fish, which are caught in rivers. Along with a fly fishing rod, players also need feathers to attract fish. Feathers can be bought on the Grand Exchange for 12 coins each. If a player wishes to get the feathers cheap they are sold in fishing stores at a price of 6gp each. However, each fishing store only has 1000 feathers at a time. Feathers are also often dropped by chickens and occasionally chompy birds. When a player has found a fishing spot, they can then use their fly fishing rod if the option 'lure fishing spot' is available. Each fish caught uses one feather. Coloured feathers from hunting can be used with fly fishing, with the exception of the stripy feather, which can be used to yield rainbow fish at level 38, rather than the usual trout and salmon. If you have both types of feathers in your inventory, you will be asked which feathers you would like to use.

Options to fish tuna/swordfish or lobsters.

Fly Fishing in places like Shilo Village or Gunnarsgrunn is thought of as the quickest possible fishing experience. However, if you want to bank your fish, you can fish in Lumbridge.

Some players, P2P or F2P, believe that fly fishing/lure fishing is the most effective way to level up, allowing players to catch constant trout (50 experience) or Salmon (70 experience).Once at a full inventory many players choose to bank their inventories either for selling purposes or even for levelling other skills such as cooking. Others may choose to drop their inventories, shortening the levelling time. With the introduction of the action bar it allowed players to drop their inventories much quicker than previous methods. 1,000 experience - 1,750 experience can be made per inventory of fish. Fly fishing takes less focus, meaning players can go AFK (away from keyboard) whilst their inventory fills. Players must also be aware that fishing spots can run out and may have to move on to the next.

Players who prefer to drop their inventories may choose quieter fishing locations such as North of West Ardougne (north west of combat training camp) on this small quiet river, 4 small fishing spots are available. Moss giants are nearby and will attack when passed with a low combat level. Or between the Observatory and Tree Gnome Village. Ogres may be passed if teleporting to Yanille Lodestone, and may attack. Other spots include East of Barbarian Village or the River Lum.

Harpoons[edit | edit source]

A player fishing with a harpoon.

Harpoons are required for catching some larger medium to high level fish: Mainly tuna, swordfish and sharks. They can only be used in the sea. When a player has found a fishing spot, they can then use their harpoon if the option Harpoon Fishing spot is available.

The ratio of tuna:swordfish when catching these with a harpoon is approximately 5:4. This means catching 5,000 tuna will get you about 4,000 swordfish.

There are three types of harpoons - the (regular) harpoon, the barb-tail harpoon, and the sacred clay harpoon. The barb-tail harpoon and sacred clay harpoon can be wielded; the (regular) harpoon cannot. The barb-tail harpoon differs in the fact it can be equipped, while the sacred clay harpoon gives double the experience per fish in addition to being wieldable. However due to the introduction of the tool belt you no longer have to worry about most fishing equipment like that of the harpoon taking up an inventory slot.

After being taught by Otto Godblessed, a player can catch fish that are harpoon-able with their bare hands. Levels required are 20 levels higher and they also require a Strength level; but doing so grants very little Strength experience. A regular harpoon can be stored in the tool belt, thus it is no longer a disadvantage having a non-wieldable harpoon. It is exactly the same rate of fish as just normal harpooning.

If the player wishes to force the game to use a harpoon to catch these fish, wielding a barb-tail harpoon will cause the player to harpoon in the regular style.

Swordfish and shark gloves will increase the Experience gained by 100 per catch. They can be bought at Fist of Guthix for 200 tokens. Tuna catches will not affect the gloves' charges.

Cages[edit | edit source]

A player fishing with a lobster cage.

Lobsters are caught in the sea, using lobster pots. When a player has found a fishing spot, they can then use their lobster cage if the option 'cage fishing spot' is available, though lobsters take a bit longer to catch than other fish. Lobster is highly recommended for fishing levels 60 to 99 for non-members. A popular cage spot is in Karamja. This is due to Stiles, who changes tuna, swordfish or lobster into notes (both raw and cooked), being just south of the Karamja volcano. An alternative mode of banking would be to use the Port Sarim lodestone, Entrana deposit box, then return via ship to Musa Point; the entire trip takes fewer clicks, and less time, than a trip to see Stiles.

Ring of Whispers[edit | edit source]

Members who have completed Sliske's Endgame receive the Ring of Whispers, which gives an invisible +3 boost to all gathering skills.

Barbarian Fishing[edit | edit source]

Main article: Barbarian Fishing
A player catching a swordfish with his bare hands.

Members with a Fishing level of at least 48, an Agility level of 15, and a Strength level of at least 35 can speak with Otto Godblessed in his home near Baxtorian Falls to learn special barbarian methods of fishing. First, he instructs the player on heavy rod fishing. Heavy rod fishing requires a barbarian rod (found under Otto's bed) and any type of bait, as well as a knife to gut the fish. In order to catch the special fish in Otto's lake, a Strength and Agility level is needed in addition to the fishing requirement. The leaping fish obtained can be used with a knife to obtain roe and caviar for use in Herblore skill, and catching them gives small amounts of experience in strength and agility.

After this, the player can learn how to fish tuna, swordfish, and sharks without a harpoon. Using this method requires a higher Fishing level as well as a Strength level equivalent to the Fishing level needed to catch the fish normally. However, it provides small amounts of Strength experience.

Prifddinas Waterfall Fishing[edit | edit source]

Main article: Prifddinas Waterfall Fishing

From level 93 Fishing, players can start fishing for crystal urchins in Prifddinas at the Prifddinas Waterfall. The area also requires level 90 Agility, Ranged, and Strength, in order to use a mith grapple to access the waterfall. There is a hidey-hole to allow infinite grapples.

There are three different types of urchins that can be fished, each with a different Fishing requirement.

Crystal urchin Fishing Level Required Fishing experience gained
Small crystal urchin 93 310
Medium crystal urchin 95 330
Large crystal urchin 97 350

Urchins can be spent at the Prifddinas Waterfall Fishing Shop for rewards such as experience and the ability to create a crystal fishing rod. They can also be ground for harmony dust, which is used to create perfect juju fishing potions. There is a rare chance that a hermit crab is obtained from fishing urchins.

While fishing, random events may occur, such as a Geyser spawning urchins across the waterfall that can be collected, or a large urchin that can be caught by multiple players.

All levels can be boosted to access the waterfall and different tiers of urchins.

Fishing in The Arc[edit | edit source]

The following types of fish may only be fished in The Arc region.

Fish Fishing Level Required Fishing experience gained
Raw tarpon 90 132.5
Raw seerfish 91 145.5
Raw sillago 92 365
Raw wobbegong 96 682.5

Fishing spots[edit | edit source]

Main article: Fishing spot

There are 5 main types of fishing spots in RuneScape: Net/Bait, Lure/Bait, Cage/Harpoon, and Net/Harpoon (members-only) and Harpoon/Net (after Swan Song, members-only). Net/Bait spots require a small fishing net to net fish whilst Net/Harpoon spots require a big fishing net to net fish. Harpoon/Net requires a small Fishing net.

Fishing Trawler[edit | edit source]

Main article: Fishing Trawler

Fishing Trawler is a fishing minigame run by Murphy that players can play at Port Khazard. Players need at least a minimum of level 15 fishing to participate. Players board a trawler boat and work as a team to prevent the boat from sinking as they are sailed for 12 minutes around the sea. It can be overwhelming for a single player, so it is recommended to bring friends, a clan, or other experienced fishers. Fishing Trawler was released 28 July 2003. Currently, world 116 is the RuneScape designated Trawler world. At the end of every trip, you get a load of fish and other assorted items (i.e. rusty swords) the Fishing Trawler is the only event to give tiger sharks.

Fish Flingers[edit | edit source]

Main article: Fish Flingers

Fish Flingers is a Distraction and Diversion released 23 March 2010. Games are scheduled every 20 minutes and last for 10 minutes. Fishermen stand in the most popular fishing spots all the time and can teleport players to the game location. For three minutes before the game starts, they will shout out periodically. Games are a solo, non-competitive minigame, although players frequently cooperate. Rewards are experience, fish, and tackle boxes, as well as pieces of the Fishing Outfit which gives up to 5% bonus experience when fishing.

Fishing and Summoning[edit | edit source]

The members-only Summoning skill provides some very useful benefits to fishing, in particular when fishing sharks or monkfish. Familiars are indispensable because they can forage fish for you on their own while you fish. Not only does this give you additional fish to sell or cook, but you will gain a portion of the experience for each catch. Plus, they will give your fishing an invisible boost that improves your catch rate slightly. There are three familiars that help with fishing.

Pouch Familiar Summoning
level 		Fishing
boost 		Forages
Granite crab pouch.png Granite Crab 16 +1 Oysters, cod, seaweed, and pike
Ibis pouch.png Ibis 56 +3 Swordfish and tuna
Granite lobster pouch.png Granite lobster 74 +4 Sharks and swordfish

While fishing for salmon and trout in Shilo Village, monkfish at the Piscatoris Fishing Colony, sharks at Burgh de Rott, rocktail at the Living Rock Caverns, or barbarian fishing at the whirlpool, an ibis produces only swordfish. A granite lobster can produce swordfish or sharks at those same four locations.

Fishing and Agility[edit | edit source]

As of the 19 January 2010 update, there is a chance of receiving bonus tuna, swordfish, and shark when players have a high enough Agility level. The chance of getting a bonus fish increases as Agility increases, up to a limit where the chances do not continue to increase (shown in the table below). For example, at 70 Agility, players have achieved the maximum chance of catching two tuna at one time. At 71, there is no increased chance than at 70. The bonus applies to barehanded fishing, as well. Players do not receive additional experience for gaining bonus fish.

Fish Fishing Level Agility Level Agility Level
(Upper Limit)
Tuna 35 35 70
Swordfish 50 50 80
Shark 76 76 99

Types of fish[edit | edit source]

Main article: Fish

There is a large variety of fish and sea creatures that can be caught. When a player catches a fish, it will be raw and cannot be eaten until it is cooked, indicated by the name and colour. For example, when shrimps are first caught they are called "raw shrimps", but once cooked the name changes to "shrimps".

Training[edit | edit source]

See Free-to-play Fishing training and Pay-to-play Fishing training for details.

Making Money[edit | edit source]

  • Players need food to heal, thus making food (particularly fish) a market with massive demand. It is recommended that players do not sell their fish to general stores or fish stores, but instead sell them to other players. The Grand Exchange or the RuneScape Forums are the best places to sell fish
  • Raw fish tend to fetch higher prices than cooked fish, due to the high demand of players who want to train Cooking. Therefore, it is recommended that you should leave your fish raw if you want to gain maximum profit.
  • The fish most commonly caught for profit are lobsters (less commonly now as the prices have crashed due to massive amounts of lobsters being sold at minimum price) and swordfish for free players. While members sought for sharks, cavefish, rocktail and sailfish.
  • A list of prices for raw and cooked fish can be found at the Grand Exchange Market Watch.
  • For some advice on making money through fishing, see the fishing section of the Money making guide.

Temporary boosts[edit | edit source]

Main article: Temporary skill boost
A player wearing a Fishing Cape (t) and performing the Skillcape emote

The following temporary boosts are visible on the stats tab. They will affect what a player can catch, provided there is something new to catch at or before that level.

The following temporary boosts are invisible, meaning they do not appear on the stats tab. They will not affect what a player can catch, only the rate at which they would catch fish.

  • Granite crab, a summoning familiar, invisibly increases Fishing by 1, requires level 16 Summoning.
  • Ibis, a summoning familiar, invisibly increases Fishing by 3, requires level 56 Summoning.
  • Granite lobster, a summoning familiar, invisibly increases Fishing by 4, requires level 74 Summoning.
  • Wearing a Ring of Whispers invisibly increases all gathering skills by 3, including Fishing. This boost stacks with invisible familiar boosts as well.

In addition to theses boosts, players with level 117 Archaeology can activate the Inspire Effort relic power at the mysterious monolith for a 2% experience increase to Fishing for as long as the relic power is active.

Fishing Guild[edit | edit source]

Main article: Fishing Guild

Cape of Accomplishment[edit | edit source]

For players with level 99 Fishing, a Fishing cape can be bought from the Master fisher standing inside the Fishing Guild. The cape will cost 99,000 coins, like all other Capes of Achievement. If Fishing is a player's only mastered skill, they will have an untrimmed cape. If the player has 99 in any other skill, it will sport a gold trim. The Fishing cape's perk provides a chance to gain an additional catch. No experience is given for the additional catch.

Skilling pet (Bubbles)[edit | edit source]

Bubbles chathead.png
Main article: Bubbles

Like all skills, there is a skilling pet obtainable from training this skill. For the Fishing skill, the pet is called Bubbles.

Quests with a Fishing requirement[edit | edit source]

Animations[edit | edit source]

Upon the release of Solomon's General Store on 17 July 2012, players could purchase alternative animations for fishing that use any rod. These include the Deep-Sea Fishing, Depth Charge Fishing and Arcane Fishing animations. The active animation can be toggled from the Animations part of the Gear interface.

With a full Shark outfit worn, a fishing animation is used where the player bends down to the water to grab the fish in their teeth. The shark head must be visible for the animation to trigger.

Prestiging an aquarium by pulling the plug allows the player to toggle a fishing animation where any fish caught are coloured silver or gold, after first and second prestige respectively. The animations may be toggled from the Prawnbroker.

  • Deep-Sea Fishing

  • Depth Charge Fishing

  • Arcane Fishing

  • Shark outfit fishing

  • Silver fishing

  • Gold fishing

Achievements[edit | edit source]

Update history[edit | edit source]

The update history project is a work-in-progress – not all updates to this topic may be covered below. See here for how to help out!
  • patch 14 October 2019 (Update):
    • Players no longer erroneously receive a message about having no charges on a fishing rod-o-matic.
  • patch 14 March 2016 (Update):
    • Fishing with a net no longer resets the animation periodically.
  • patch 24 August 2015 (Update):
    • A typo related to rocktail gloves in the Fishing skill guide has been fixed.
  • patch 12 October 2011 (Update):
    • Fishing using a small net now has sounds attached.
  • patch 1 February 2011 (Update):
    • A typo on anchovies in the Fishing skill advance guide has been fixed.
  • patch 9 November 2010 (Update):
    • The Evil Bob fishing random event is now using a small net fishing animation.
  • patch 2 November 2010 (Update):
    • The wolf-fur sarong no longer stretches if worn while fishing.
  • patch 11 January 2010 (Update):
    • Fixed a grammar issue in the Fishing skill guide.
  • patch 3 December 2009 (Update):
    • Adjusted several fishing animations slightly to reduce render issues.
  • patch 21 July 2009 (Update):
    • Sorted a Fishing spot that was partially in water and on land at the same time.
    • The Fishing skill guide icons are now consistently the raw version of the fish, where appropriate.
  • patch 19 May 2009 (Update):
    • Fixed an issue with the Around the World... emote and fishing.
    • Improved some grammar in some fishing text.
  • patch 12 May 2009 (Update):
    • Polar camouflage gear no longer clips when fishing or burying bones.

Trivia[edit | edit source]

  • Most fishing spots are considered non-player characters instead of objects in the game engine.
  • In Runescape Classic, clicking on a fishing spot just gave you 1 attempt to catch a fish.
  • Throughout one 2012 Winter Weekend, from Saturday 22nd December 00:00 GMT until Sunday 23rd December 23:59 GMT, there was double experience given to Fishing and Slayer.
  • Before the removal of Random events, players would randomly get events such as the River Troll, Whirlpool, Big Fish, and Evil Bob.
  • The current minimum requirement to be ranked (at approximately rank 1,255,165) on the hiscores for Fishing is level 15. As of 04 August 2020, there are 184,407 current members that have achieved level 99 in Fishing. There are 12,119 current members that have achieved level 120 in Fishing.

See also[edit | edit source]

v • d • e
RS3 Skills
Combat
Gathering
Artisan
Support
Elite
Former skills
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