The mechanics of leveling fishing are now a no brainer. Back in the day, you couldn't fish in most areas if your fishing skill wasn't high enough. Also, it was possible that your skill was high enough to fish in an area, but not high enough to be at that magical number where you always caught a fish. This meant you would sometimes catch nothing at all, meaning no reward for all that effort, and no skill up, either. Nowadays, you can fish anywhere. If your skill is lower than a zone's "minimum," you'll only fish up various pieces of grey junk. If you skill is in between a zone's minimum and it's "no junk number," you'll alternate between catching fish and junk. That means no more failed casts and no wasted skill-up opportunities. What this means for you is that the only advice you really need on leveling fishing is advice on the subjective aspects of the experience. That's what I intend to give you: advice to make the process itself more bearable.
The first thing you need to do to make the strategies I am about to present to you work is a bit of preparation. Start by binding fishing to a key on your keyboard (or two). (escape menu -> key bindings) The ideal position for the key that you bind fishing to is one right next to your mouse. That way, you can go from right-clicking the bobber with your middle finger to hitting your "fishing button(s)" with your thumb. If your keyboard and your mouse aren't close to each other, move them. I use the + and - key on the number pad on my keyboard. I picked two keys that were right next to each other so that I had more room for error when I cast fishing. You see, these strategies will require you to cast fishing without being able to look at the keyboard, so it's a good idea to bind fishing to either a very large key, or two keys right next to one another.
I also highly recommend that you turn on auto-loot while fishing. (escape menu -> interface -> combat -> auto loot) It speeds up the process dramatically since you won't need to click on the fish to loot it. Finally, I recommend that you fish with WoW in windowed mode. (control-M for windows, command-M for macs) This will make perfect sense for my second method, but for the first, just remember that it means that you won't need to move the mouse as much to click the bobber.
Now you are ready to multitask, and that is what's at the core of keeping fishing interesting: doing something else while you fish. If you are new to fishing, it may be a bit much to ask of you to do something like that, but if you are at that level of fishing skill, it probably isn't boring for you yet. In that case, you don't need this advice. For the rest of you, here are the very methods I used to level fishing.
Reading while Fishing
While I was leveling fishing, I checked a book out of my local library specifically for the purposes of keeping myself entertained while I did it. Reading was the first kind of multitasking I did while fishing, and it's what got me started on this road. Although almost any book will suffice for this purpose, if you are picking a book specifically to read while leveling fishing, there are a few things to keep in mind. Fishing while reading can be counterproductive if you lose your spot in the book every time you look up, so a book of factoids or a book written in short stanzas is a good choice. These books are set up in such a way that it will be difficult for you to loose your place, with all the line breaks and everything.
Fishing while reading may also help you read the book itself if it is a boring book. I know that I wouldn't have been able to get through the lull in the middle of Crime and Punishment if I hadn't been fishing while reading it. Although fishing while reading can impede your understanding of the book, if you just want to get through the book, fishing will help a lot. Excitement of fishing + dullness of Raskolnikov's inner turmoil = bearable read.
His angst almost turned me off from Russian Literature for good. Thank God for WoW and fishing.When you are ready to begin, start by placing the book somewhere on your desk where you can hold it down with your left hand. Put your right hand on the mouse with your thumb close to your fishing button(s). The process should go something like this:
1. Cast fishing.
2. Move your cursor over the fishing bobber.
3. Read.
4. Listen for the noise your bobber makes when you catch a fish.
5. Right click.
If you correctly executed step two, you shouldn't need to look up for step five. Assuming all goes well, you should now have a fish in your inventory and a few lines of the book in your head. Now you just need to repeat these five steps. The only point during this process where you will need to look away from your book is step two. Step two may be accomplished any time between steps one and four.
This is the most basic kind of fishing multitasking. It takes practice to get good at it, but once you can do it successfully, you'll be able to move the cursor over the bobber in a fraction of a second, meaning more time for reading. That is the most important skill this will help you develop: being able to quickly see where the bobber is and move your mouse over it. This skill becomes even more vital with the next kind of multitasking
Browsing the Internet while Fishing
This is where windowed mode becomes vital, unless you use two computer screens, in which case browsing the internet while fishing is nothing more than high-tech reading. I you can actually set up this kind of thing, then just reffer to the dirrections for reading while fishing. Of course, you probably won't be able to use two screnes, which means you will be cycling between whatever web-site you are looking at and the WoW window itself. For this setup to work, it's important to organize your windows in a way that facilitates easy switching between the two. This isn't an issue if you can tab between your windows. (On a mac, this is accomplished with command-tab. I don't know how it is done on windows, but I assume it's control-tab) If you can't tab between your windows, then I recommend that you use the following setup: have WoW right up against the left side of your screen so that when you move your mouse as far left as you can, it will be over the window for WoW. Then leave about a quarter of an inch of space between the left side of your screen and the left side of your preferred web browser. Also, make sure the window of your web browser is wide enough that it sticks out a good distance from the right side of the WoW window. To sum all that up, make your two windows overlap and have each one stick out on one side.
Like books, it will do you no good to read a website where switching windows will cause you to loose your place. With enough practice, this will become a non-issue. Until then, web-comics are a good choice. Most can be read in the time it takes you to fish up your catch, and the panels help prevent you from losing your place when reading a longer one. I can't give too many recommendations, but I'll try. Cyanide and Happiness is always short, but it may be a bit shocking for some people. XKCD has more high-brow humor, though it is also a bit geeky. As for WoW-related webcomics, I recommend Dark Legacy and NPC. Funny picture sites are also good, since picture don't take your very long to read, and it is thus impossible to lose your place. I recommend lolcats and its affiliated sites. (You can find links to the affiliated sites on top of the home page.)
Or try both at the same time!One more thing to mention is that, for this to work, you will need to be very quick at seeing the bobber, moving your mouse over it, and clicking it. This is where all that practice from the reading method comes in. If you are good at that, then all you need to do is pick your website. Once you have your website picked, just follow one of the following sets of steps, depending on whether you are alt-tabbing or not.
Alt-tabbing Method:
1. Cast fishing.
2. Alt-tab to your Internet page.
3. Read/look at/view your Internet page.
4. Listen for the noise your bobber makes when you catch a fish.
5. Alt-tab to WoW
6. Right click on the bobber.
And repeat.
Manual Window-Switching Method:
1. Cast fishing.
2. Move your mouse over the right edge of your Internet page and click.
3. Read/look at/view your Internet page.
4. Listen for the noise your bobber makes when you catch a fish.
5. Move your mouse quickly to the left side of the screen and click.
6. Right click on the bobber.
Y repite. This is where you will be glad you moved the WoW window as far left as you could, since you won't need to aim your cursor before you click; you'll only need to jerk your mouse to the left and click.
That's all there is too it. Using either of those methods should make fishing much more enjoyable to level. You can also use them after you have reached 450 fishing to make some gold while reading or browsing the Internet. To do this, I'd recommend you fish is a zone where you won't catch any junk without applying a lure to your fishing pole. That way, you won't need to re-apply your lures every ten minutes. According to El's Extreme Anglin', you only need an effective skill of 475 to fish in Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, and Howling Fjord, which are the only zones worth fishing in, anyways. I recommend the in-land waters of Dragonblight, since you will catch both Musselback Sculpin and Dragonfin Angelfish, both of which sell well on the AH. If you prefer a more tense atmosphere and don't mind applying lures, then Wintergrasp will probably net you more profit per hour, since you will only be catching fish that should sell well. Just park yourself somewhere off to the sides where people aren't likely to go, and keep your wits about you.
Well, there you go! If you have any more ideas for multitasking while leveling fishing, or any ways to make fishing more interesting, feel free to share them in the comment section bellow. Also, those pictures and accompanying comments; yay or nay? I think it added some flair to the wall of text, but I want the opinions of you, dear readers. This blog is for you, after all.
I leave you with this image from GraphJam, one of icanhascheezburger.com's sister sites.
They forgot Chuck Norris jokes, homophobia, people being rude to people who ask legitimate questions... though I suppose all those go under the category of General Douchbaggery.
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