I’ve participated four times in the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza event on a medium population realm and I’ve won twice. One of the times that I lost, I was late and didn’t have time to get to my preferred spot when the contest started. The other time that 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 contest
The Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza is held in Stranglethorn Vale (STV) every Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. realm 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 Stranglethorn Vale that the event is starting. At that time schools of tastyfish will spawn around the coasts. At that point there are two goals to achieve.
The objectives
There are two objectives of 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 be patient.
How to win the contest
Here are some tips you can use to increase your chances of winning, as well as some of my experiences from a time when I won the event in 27 minutes on a medium population PvP realm playing on my hunter:
- Set your Hearthstone at Booty Bay. This lets you fish anywhere in the zone without worrying how to get back fast. Make sure the Hearthstone is not on cooldown.
- Use a Riding Crop to ride faster.
- Use Medallion of The Alliance or Medallion of the Horde if you’re on a PvP realm to have a better chance of surviving ganking.
- Start at the very north west of the coast and follow the coast south, fishing from pools along the way.
- 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 hearthstoned to Booty Bay 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 that I won, I just stayed on 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.
A word about outside help
Theoretically, you could ask a friend or “mercenary” to gank every other player of the opposite faction to eliminate some of the competition, at least if you’re on a PvP realm. The benefits are dubious, though, as someone from 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, which may be a viable idea.
I am not sure if having other players help you is considered an exploit or breaks the rules, so use it at your own risk and make sure that it’s allowed before you try it.
More reading?
El’s Extreme Anglin’ Guide to the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza was the only guide I read before participating in the contest. However, that website seems to be down since 2015. Ultimately, the tips in this guide should be helpful enough and with some practice (and luck) you can eventually win.