RuneScape/Skills/Fishing

Fishing is considered to be one of the most important skills in Runescape as it is one of the easiest and quickest ways of gaining food for training combat, thieving or slayer. It is also one of the most common ways to make money typically through highly sought after fish such as Lobsters and Sharks.

Starting out, you can only use a small net to fish shrimp unless you've already gained fishing levels through quests. In the following order these types of fishing styles will be open to you as your fishing level rises: 1; Bait fishing 2; fly fishing 3; harpoon fishing 4; cage fishing.

Bait fishing is a decent way to level up fishing although it can only be done at rivers. It requires a fishing rod and some bait, typically players buy these at the fishing stores although bait is one of the more common drops by Zombies.

Fly Fishing is similar to bait fishing except it requires a fly fishing rod and feathers. It is highly popular with many players as a means to fast and easy leveling of the fishing skill due to being faster than bait fishing and the widespread ease of finding feathers.

Harpoon fishing sees you use a harpoon around a docks area. It is used first for catching tuna followed by swordfish. Both are good training foods but are quite difficult to sell plus you can't quite "choose" which fish you'll end up with. Harpoon fishing become highly efficient at level 76 where Sharks become accessable, these are one of the highest healing foods on the market and typically sell for anywhere from 900-1000gp.

Cage fishing is one of the most common methods of fishing starting at level 40 and never quite ending. Lobsters are the first and last fishes to be caught using a cage. Due to lobster's decent healing and the fact that is rather easy to fish, especially in members' worlds, there is a huge market for lobster fishers.

Favourite places for members to train fishing are:


 * Catherby - All types of fishing except for fly fishing, close access to both a range and a bank so players can cook their catch on the way to storing it, useful for all fishing levels. The bank here is also a major location for buying and selling fish. The only problem here is there are so many people that spamming on the chat channels (people saying nonsense things or saying the same thing over and over), verbal fights, and insults are common. It can be very peaceful when public chat is off though, and sometimes intelligent discussions can be held with lots of people participating which can be very interesting.


 * Shilo Village - Fly fishing only, highly efficient for fast levelling since the fishing store buys raw salmon and trout and sells feathers, only a few steps away from a bank and the fishing store, minor inconvenience of not having any way to cook the fish since there are no ranges or trees that can be chopped for fires. People levelling here often take the fishing experience without the cooking and get in trouble later on when they are catching sharks but can't cook them. Another problem is that by the time players are able to do the "Shilo Village" quest required to enter the village their fishing level will hardly benefit from fly fishing training. The quest is one of the more experienced ones in the game and as such only high level players can do it, most of the high levels around have been smart enough to really work on their fishing skill and as such fly fishing only gives them minimal experience.


 * Fishing Guild - Lobster, tuna, swordfish, and sharks can be caught here. A fishing level of 68 is required but fishing potions and some of the new pies can be used to cheat. The two fishing platforms are extremely close to a bank. Like Shilo, there are inconveniences with cooking. There is a range, but it is far away from both the platforms and the bank. Most players fishing here will catch a certain number of fish and then go to catherby and use the range there to cook their catch. The guild is usually preferred to catherby as it is much more quiet.