This Midnight Fishing guide covers everything you need to know about Fishing in the Midnight expansion, from leveling 1 to 300 to finding the best fishing pools and using lures. Fishing works a lot like it did in The War Within, but there are 20 new fish, 12 types of fishing pools, craftable fishing rods, lures, and a new fishing line system.
Fishing Trainer
You can learn Midnight Fishing from Drathen in Silvermoon City.
Track Fishing Pools
If you don't have this already, buy an 
Angler's Guide from the Fishing supply vendor near your trainer. She is sitting by the water there. If you face the trainer she is on the left side.
Learn the book and this will teach you how to track fishing pools on your minimap. This is very useful for finding pools.
Zone Skill Levels
The fishing skill cap is 300, same as The War Within. Each zone has a recommended skill level, but I'm honestly not sure why it's even there. Like it says that Eversong Woods is skill 1, but you will catch junk all the way up to around 220 when you start getting useful fish more consistently.
It seems to me that the recommended skill doesn't matter at all. You will start getting useful fish from around 220 and then I stopped getting grey trash completely around 290. The exception was Oceanic Vortexes in Voidstorm, I was still getting grey items there even with 300 fishing skill.
Leveling Fishing
Currently, there are two main ways to level Fishing.
Pool Fishing
If you want to catch anything valuable while leveling, fish in pools. Fly around Eversong Woods or Zul'Aman, find pools, and fish them. Open-water fishing gives you mostly grey vendor junk until around 220, where you start getting some normal fish. At 270, you can stop Pool fishing and just fish normally anywhere.
AFK Open-Water Fishing
The other method is to park yourself in one spot and fish in open water while doing something else. With the Better Fishing addon, you can bind a key to cast and interact, then just listen for the splash sound while watching something on another monitor. You won't catch many useful fish until around 250, but this is a much more relaxed way to level Fishing.
How to set it up:
- Install the Better Fishing addon.
- Go to Settings > Keybindings > Better Fishing > set keybinds for Cast and Interact.
- Find a quiet spot in Eversong Woods, or you can also fish near the Fishing trainer.
- Start fishing, listen for the splash, press your key, then press it again to recast.
- You can get to 300 in roughly 2 to 3 hours this way.
Voidstorm and Oceanic Vortex
There is no open water in Voidstorm. The only way to fish there is through Oceanic Vortex bubbles, and these are very hard to find because they don't show up as Fishing Pool even with fish tracking on.
These pools spawn in random locations in Voidstorm, they have a higher chance to drop 
Null Voidfish and 
Ominous Octopus. The pools last much longer than normal pools.
Fish in Midnight
There are 20 fish in Midnight, split across Common, Uncommon, and Rare quality. All fish can be filleted using the Cooking ability 
Thalassian Filet to create fillets for cooking recipes.
The locations below show where you're most likely to catch each fish.
Noteworthy Fish
These two fish are kinda unique and worth mentioning separately. The rest of the fish are just ingredients for recipes, but these two have special effects.
Blood Hunter - Spawns a hostile Blood Hunter Spirit when fished up. Kill it for an extra Blood Hunter. If you find this annoying, craft an 
Amani Angler's Ward to prevent spirits from spawning for 30 minutes. The recipe drops from treasure fishing pools.
Warping Wise - Using this fish teleports you to a random location in a random Midnight zone.
Common Fish
| Fish | Open-Water Zones | Pools |
|---|---|---|
 Arcane Wyrmfish |
Eversong, Harandar | Bubbling Bloom, Sunwell Swarm, Blossoming Torrent |
 Gore Guppy |
Zul'Aman | Hunter Surge, Surface Ripple |
 Lynxfish |
Eversong, Zul'Aman | Bubbling Bloom, Sunwell Swarm, Surface Ripple |
 Root Crab |
Zul'Aman, Harandar | Obscured School, Surface Ripple |
 Sin'dorei Swarmer |
Eversong, Zul'Aman | Bubbling Bloom, Sunwell Swarm, Surface Ripple |
Uncommon Fish
| Fish | Open-Water Zones | Pools |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Hunter |
Zul'Aman, Voidstorm | Surface Ripple, Hunter Surge, Viscous Void, Oceanic Vortex |
 Bloomtail Minnow |
Harandar | Lashing Waves |
 Fungalskin Pike |
Zul'Aman, Harandar | Lashing Waves, Obscured School, Surface Ripple |
 Restored Songfish |
Eversong, Harandar | Bloom Swarm, Bubbling Bloom, Sunwell Swarm, Blossoming Torrent |
 Shimmer Spinefish |
Eversong, Harandar | Bloom Swarm, Bubbling Bloom, Sunwell Swarm, Blossoming Torrent |
 Shimmersiren |
Voidstorm | Viscous Void, Oceanic Vortex |
 Sunwell Fish |
Eversong | Sunwell Swarm, Blossoming Torrent |
 Tender Lumifin |
Harandar | Blossoming Torrent |
Rare Fish
| Fish | Open-Water Zones | Pools |
|---|---|---|
 Eversong Trout |
Eversong | Sunwell Swarm, Bubbling Bloom |
 Hollow Grouper |
Voidstorm | Viscous Void, Oceanic Vortex |
 Lucky Loa |
Zul'Aman | Obscured School, Surface Ripple |
| Null Voidfish |
Voidstorm | Viscous Void, Oceanic Vortex |
| Ominous Octopus |
Voidstorm | Viscous Void, Oceanic Vortex |
| Warping Wise |
Voidstorm | Viscous Void, Oceanic Vortex |
Recipes Using Fish
Most Cooking food buffs have multiple recipe versions that give the same stat, and every stat has at least one cheap version that only uses 
Thalassian Filet, 
Practically Pork, or 
Plant Protein. Most players will just use the cheaper recipes, so the unique fish recipes are not worth farming for personal food buffs. Check the Cooking Guide for the full recipe list.
Feast Recipes
These are the only two feast recipes that use unique fish. Both have alternative versions that use herbs instead, so fish feasts are not strictly necessary. Whether the fish or herb version ends up cheaper will depend on Auction House prices.
| Recipe | Fish Used | Buff |
|---|---|---|
 Quel'dorei Medley |
6x Eversong Trout, 4x Restored Songfish |
+65 Highest Secondary (Feast) |
 Silvermoon Parade |
4x Lynxfish, 4x Arcane Wyrmfish |
+50 Primary Stat (Feast) |
Skinning Lures
Skinners use fish to craft Majestic Lures, which summon Renowned Beasts that drop 
Majestic Hide, 
Majestic Fin, and 
Majestic Claw. You need Skinning specialization points in Talented Tracker to unlock these. Unlike feasts, there is no alternative recipe for lures, so the fish used here will likely be the most valuable on the AH.
| Lure | Fish Used |
|---|---|
 Majestic Eversong Lure |
8x Arcane Wyrmfish, 8x Lynxfish |
| Majestic Zul'Aman Lure |
8x Gore Guppy |
| Majestic Harandar Lure |
8x Fungalskin Pike, 8x Tender Lumifin |
| Majestic Voidstorm Lure |
4x Ominous Octopus |
| Grand Beast Lure |
4x Null Voidfish |
Alchemy Transmute
Alchemists can transmute fish into gems with School of Gems. This costs 3x 
Stabilized Derivate, 12x Fungalskin Pike, 8x Null Voidfish, 5x 
Harandar Peridot, and 5x 
Amani Lapis.
Treasures & Rare Pools
These are rare fishing pools that can spawn in any zone. They have a chance to drop rare items, recipes.
| Pool | Contains | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Careless Cargo | Treasure | Lure recipes, fishing line components, Motes, and other treasures. |
| Lost Treasures | Treasure | Very rare. Similar to Careless Cargo. I often got nothing from these, but that might be a bug. |
| Viscous Void | Blood Hunter, Hollow Grouper, Null Voidfish, Ominous Octopus, Shimmersiren, Warping Wise | Best way to get Null Voidfish and Ominous Octopus |
Items
These are the items that I got from pools and treasures that I thought were interesting.
-
Aquarius Bloom - Turns any fishing pool into a Bloom Swarm.
An Angler's Deep Dive - Increases Midnight Fishing skill by 10. Found in Careless Cargo and Lost Treasures pools, as well as Patient Treasure chests.
Angler's Anomaly - Creates an Oceanic Vortex pool anywhere you want. Fished from treasure pools. The summoned vortex lasts much longer than natural pools.
Patient Treasures
While you're fishing, you'll occasionally get a random Patient Treasure chest spawn nearby. These can contain the items like An Angler's Deep Dive, Bloomline and Glimmerline pieces, cosmetics, and lure recipes.
Fishing Rods
Fishing rods are crafted by Engineers. The green rod is tradeable on the Auction House, but the rare and epic versions are Bind on Pickup, so you will need to place a Crafting Order. The epic rod requires 
Fused Vitality which is also Bind on Pickup. You can buy Fused Vitality with the weekly event currency, so you don't need Herbalism or any crafting profession to get it.
| Rod | Materials |
|---|---|
 Farstrider Hobbyist Rod |
1x  Soul Sprocket, 1x  Evercore |
| Sin'dorei Angler's Rod |
1x  Malleable Wireframe, 1x Majestic Fin, 4x  Aetherlume, 2x Evercore |
| Sin'dorei Reeler's Rod |
1x Malleable Wireframe, 1x Majestic Fin, 20x Fused Vitality, 4x Aetherlume, 2x Evercore |
Does Perception even matter?
I've done testing and looked online if anyone could verify that Perception matters for fishing in any way, and the answer seems to be no.
It doesn't increase your chance of catching rare fish or reduce the chance of catching junk. I have never seen any evidence that it does anything for normal fishing. In mining and herbalism, you get a message when you get something extra from Perception procs, but there is no such message for fishing. If you have any proof that it works on fishing, let me know.
Fishing Recipes
Fishing has its own craftable recipes. Lures increase your chance of catching a specific fish for 30 minutes, and the Amani Angler's Ward prevents Blood Hunter Spirits from spawning. All recipes are Bind on Pickup and drop from fishing, usually from Careless Cargo or Lost Treasures pools.
The Amani Angler's Ward is the most useful here if you fish in Zul'Aman, it prevents the annoying Blood Hunter Spirits from attacking you.
| Item | Recipe | Reagent |
|---|---|---|
 Blood Hunter Lure |
 Recipe: Blood Hunter Lure |
5x Gore Guppy |
 Lucky Loa Lure |
Recipe: Lucky Loa Lure |
5x Sin'dorei Swarmer |
 Ominous Octopus Lure |
Recipe: Ominous Octopus Lure |
5x Null Voidfish |
| Sunwell Fish Lure |
Recipe: Sunwell Fish Lure |
5x Sin'dorei Swarmer |
| Amani Angler's Ward |
Recipe: Amani Angler's Ward |
2x Blood Hunter |
Midnight Angler's Grand Line
The 
Midnight Angler's Grand Line is a fishing line that doubles your treasure drops. It doesn't require any profession skill to create, you just combine fished components.
How to Craft
You fish up line fragments and combine them step by step. There are two chains you build separately, then combine into the final Grand Line. All fragments drop while fishing anywhere in Midnight zones, and every tier can be bought or sold on the Auction House.
Bloomline Chain
100x 
Shredded Bloomline → 1x Stranded Bloomline
20x Stranded Bloomline → 1x Weak Bloomline
5x Weak Bloomline → 1x Angler's Bloomline
Glimmerline Chain
100x Shredded Glimmerline → 1x Stranded Glimmerline
20x Stranded Glimmerline → 1x Weak Glimmerline
20x Weak Glimmerline → 1x Angler's Glimmerline
Final Combine
1x Angler's Bloomline + 1x Angler's Glimmerline → 1x Midnight Angler's Grand Line