Fishing pool

Fishing pools, or Schools of Fish, are location objects found in different bodies of water in WoW that have a significance to the fishing profession. Typically, a higher portion of more desirable items can be fished within a fishing pool. Fishing pool is a more general term; School of Fish is a fishing pool that contains (primarily) fish. School of Fish can also mean a kind of critter object in WoW that is not directly fishable (but appears only in fishable waters), and so fishing pool is more specific as regards the fishing profession; School of Fish critter objects are not fishing pools.

Fishing

Fishing pools are shallow cylindrical regions within fishable water. They designate small regions within fishable water that give better kinds of catches than the surrounding water. Some fish can only be obtained from Fishing pools.

In order to fish a Fishing pool, your bobber must be within the circular area on the surface of the water that defines the boundaries of the fishing pool. Only the top surface has significance for fishing.

To do this, face the pool, pole in hand. Cast, then if you want to only fish the pool, recast each time you miss. An AddOn such as Fishing Buddy can make this easier to do.

If your bobber lands close to the boundary of the pool, it may be unclear if it is within the pool or not. You can often tell from what you catch, but if you are in a hurry you may not want to wait.

Some of the uncertainty is from the 3-D nature of the pool. Depending on the type of pool, it may be partly outlined by fish critters swimming within the pool boundaries. These will be under the surface of the pool and from your point of view will appear to be offset toward you on the surface. Also, some of the defining graphics fade in and out, simulating the effects of light on water.

Another visual challenge is that the barrels and crates in a Floating Wreckage pool can somewhat obscure your bobber. Also they are slightly bobbing, and can make your bobber seem to be bobbing prematurely relative to themselves.

The fishing skill level required to fish a fishing pool is the same as the surrounding water. If the pool spawns on a boundary between fishing zones (there are some that do), the skill level required may be different within the fishing pool depending on where your bobber lands.

Fishing pools are not permanent, but appear and remain until fished out (like mineral nodes are mined out) then respawn at a different location. The respawn rules vary, some types have a delay, some do not.

• Schools are important objects for selective farming of Alchemy or Cooking ingredients.
• Some schools must be fished as part of a quest.
• A [Weather-Beaten Journal] teaches the Find Fish ability for Tracking fishing pools. It can be looted from fished containers or as a reward from the Fishing Dailys from Old Man Barlo.

Types

Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor schools

Name	Main Catch	Coastal or Inland	Zones Located
Bloodsail Wreckage	[Mithril Bound Trunk]	Coastal	Stranglethorn Vale
School of Deviate Fish	[Deviate Fish]	Inland	The Barrens
Floating Wreckage	[Mithril Bound Trunk]	Coastal	Stranglethorn Vale
Floating Debris	[Tightly Sealed Trunk]	Coastal & Inland	The Barrens Darkshore Loch Modan Silverpine Forest Westfall
Abundant Firefin Snapper Pool Firefin Snapper Pool Sparse Firefin Snapper Pool Teeming Firefin Snapper Pool	[Firefin Snapper]	Coastal	Stranglethorn Vale Hillsbrad Foothills Wetlands Azshara Feralas Tanaris Arathi Highlands Desolace Dustwallow Marsh
Oil Spill	[Firefin Snapper]	Inland	Stonetalon Mountains
Abundant Oily Blackmouth School Lesser Oily Blackmouth School Oily Blackmouth School Sparse Oily Blackmouth School Teeming Oily Blackmouth School	[Oily Blackmouth]	Coastal	Stranglethorn Vale Hillsbrad Foothills Wetlands Azshara Feralas Tanaris Arathi Highlands Desolace Dustwallow Marsh Westfall
Patch of Elemental Water	[Elemental Water]  [Essence of Water]  [Globe of Water]	Coastal	Azshara
School of Greater Sagefish	[Raw Greater Sagefish]	Inland	Stranglethorn Vale Alterac Mountains
School of Sagefish School of Lesser Sagefish	[Raw Sagefish]	Inland	Loch Modan Silverpine Forest Ashenvale Stonetalon Mountains Hillsbrad Foothills
Schooner Wreckage Pool	[Watertight Trunk]	Coastal & Inlands	Ashenvale Hillsbrad Foothills Stonetalon Mountains Wetlands
Stonetalon Eel Swarm	[Stonescale Eel]	Coastal	Azshara Feralas Stranglethorn Vale Tanaris
Speckled Tastyfish Pool	[Speckled Tastyfish]	Coastal	Stranglethorn Vale†
Waterlogged Wreckage Pool	[Iron Bound Trunk]	Coastal & Inland	Alterac Mountains Arathi Highlands Desolace Dustwallow Marsh Stranglethorn Vale
Muddy Churning Waters	[Zulian Mudskunk]	n/a	Zul'Gurub

^†Only during the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza

Outland Schools

Name	Main Catch	Zones Located
Bluefish School	[Icefin Bluefish]	Nagrand
Brackish Mixed School	[Golden Darter]  [Spotted Feltail]	Terokkar Forest Zangarmarsh
Highland Mixed School	[Golden Darter]  [Furious Crawdad]	Terokkar Forest
Mudfish School	[Figluster's Mudfish]	Nagrand
Pure Water	[Mote of Water]	Nagrand
Steam Pump Flotsam	[Heavy Supply Crate]  [Steam Pump Debris]	Zangarmarsh
Zangarian Sporefish School	[Zangarian Sporefish]	Zangarmarsh

Northrend Schools

Name	Main Catch	Coastal or Inland	Zones Located
Borean Man O'War School	[Borean Man O' War]	Coastal	Borean Tundra
Deep Sea Monsterbelly School	[Deep Sea Monsterbelly]	Off Coast	The Frozen Sea Borean Tundra
Dragonfin Angelfish School	[Dragonfin Angelfish]	Inland	Dragonblight
Fangtooth Herring School	[Fangtooth Herring]	Inland	Howling Fjord
Glacial Salmon School	[Glacial Salmon]	Inland	Grizzly Hills
Glassfin Minnow School	[Glassfin Minnow]	Inland	Crystalsong Forest
Imperial Manta Ray School	[Imperial Manta Ray]	Coastal	Borean Tundra Dragonblight Grizzly Hills
Moonglow Cuttlefish School	[Moonglow Cuttlefish]	Off Coast	The Frozen Sea
Musselback Sculpin School	[Musselback Sculpin]	Inland	Borean Tundra Dragonblight
Nettlefish School	[Nettlefish]	Inland	Sholazar Basin

Special Pools

There are some pools that, while visible at the water surface, are not used as a fishing resource. These may be used as quest objectives or to summon a boss. These have a slightly different appearance than normal fishing schools. A normal Fishing school will look like a circular outlined darker patch of water. A quest objective pool will look like a speckled surface area.

• School of Red Snapper Used for  [6] Red Snapper - Very Tasty!
• School of Tasty Reef Fish Used for  [69] The Way to His Heart...
• Strange Pool in Serpentshrine Cavern within Coilfang Reservoir in Zangarmarsh must be fished to summon the boss, The Lurker Below.
• School of Northern Salmon, an objective of  [75] A Bear of an Appetite
• 'School of Fish' which is a pool of Peacebloom exists in the game in a lake in the mountains north of the Human starting area Northshire Valley. You can see it as you fly over it on the flight between Stormwind and Ironforge. You cannot reach it by normal means, but it has been fished. It is probably a code test area or a bug, and fishing it might be considered to be an exploit, although the peacebloom is not of noteworthy value.

Achievements

The Following Achievements Require Fishing from Pools:

•  The Old Gnome and the Sea
•  The Scavenger
•  Outland Angler
•  Northrend Angler
•  The Lurker Above
•  Master Angler of Stranglethorn
•  Turtles All the Way Down

Additionally some element of pool fishing is needed to complete these Achievements:

•  Mr.Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box - Requires fishing up  [Mr. Pinchy] a rare spawn from Highland Mixed Pools
•  Deadliest Catch - The Lure used to fish up Gahz`ranka uses  [Zulian Mudskunk] which are only fished from the Muddy Churning Water pools.

Patch changes

•  Hotfix (2009-04-16): "Certain fishing nodes for one of the fishing daily quests should no longer be spawned on land. "
  
• Patch 1.9.0 (03-Jan-2006): Schools of fish have appeared around the world that can be fished from a few times before being fished out. These schools tend to contain valuable fish types such as Oily Blackmouth or Firefin Snapper. In some places, wreckage can be fished from for even better rewards.
  

External links

• El's Extreme Anglin' REBORN Fishing Pools