Introduction to Fishing
Fishing is an important skill in Runescape. It plays a large part in the economy and provides players with raw materials that are needed to train a wide range of skills such as combat, cooking and it can even act as your money making skill.
Getting Started
Fishing is very repetitive and boring at first, and the fish you catch are literally worthless. It takes a lot of determination to become successful in fishing.
If you have just started Runescape and you are clueless of where to start, it is a good idea to visit Finlay the Fishing Tutor. He will give you a fishing net incase you do not have one. He is located in the south of lumbridge, at the very east of the swamp. Incase you are lost, click the button that looks like a globe next to the minimap.
Training
Level 1-5
Start by fishing shrimp. The best place to start doing this is next to draynor village bank. It is a short walk from the bank though watch out for the dark magician. He will attack you if you are low level. Your fishing levels should advance fairly quickly since the experience needed to level is not high at all.
Level 5-15
Sardines are an available option at level 5, they are good experience but newbies may not be able to afford large amounts of bait. If you are experienced, get a fishing rod and some bait and go for it. If you can not afford large quantities of bait, you can stay with netting shrimp.
Level 15-20
You will now be fishing anchovies along with shrimp. You may keep baiting sardines at this level, but anchovies can be used later on in anchovy pizzas. It is your choice.
Level 20+
Now the big experience comes in. Buy a lot of feathers, a fly-fishing rod from Port Sarim, and go to the river next to the barbarian village. You should be hauling in loads of trout at level 20. If you can not afford to buy mass feathers (around 3000), you can kill chickens. They drop decent amounts of feathers.
Once you hit level 30, you will fish salmon along with trout. The fishing experience here is the fastest fishing experience in the free to play world but the money is not worth the effort. The reason i wrote 20+ is because many people stay here until they hit level 99, but many choose to go fish other fish for profit such as lobsters and swordfish.
Only Come Back here for fast fishing levels. NOT PROFIT.
The routine is simple. Fish at the barbarian village, run northwards to Edgeville bank, come back and repeat. Do not drop or cook them. Later, you can cook them all at once. The reason for this is to save time. Cooking them on fires only leads to more burning. By saving them to cook later you can cook them on ranges which burn less leading to more food and cooking experience. Dropping is a waste of training food. Trout and salmon make great training foods because they are easily obtained, not worth much and they heal decently. Also by the time you have finished dropping your inventory, you may already have made a bank run.
Level 45+
Lobsters require a lobster pot to fish and can only be found on Karamja on f2p. They can be sold for a nice juicy wad of cash or they can be saved for use later as bounty hunting food. They are available at level 40 though it is very slow and not worth your time.
Explorer ring 3 is required for this routine. Obtained from lumbridge achievment diaries.
To fish lobsters at the highest speed possible, first, bank at draynor village. In your inventory keep 30gold (for the trip to Karamja) and a lobster pot. Teleport to cabbage patch from draynor bank, then run to the port sarim boat. Take the trip to Karamja, fish and then cabbage teleport back. Run to the bank, deposit and repeat.
Level 55+
Now you can fish the best fish in f2p, swordfish. Like lobsters, swordfish are only found on Karamja. To fish swordfish, you will need a harpoon. Many people do not fish for swordfish because along with swordfish, you will fish tuna and until around level 60 fishing+ the rate of swordfish:tuna is terrible. I see many people who just drop their tuna. Tuna is great cooking experience and is also a lovely training food though it is your choice whether you drop your tuna or bank it.
The routine for fishing swordfish is the same as for caging lobsters.
Additional Points
- You may like to invest in a pair of swordfish gloves.They give an extra 100 fishing experience when fishing swordfish and after you fish 1000 swordfish, they crumble. They cost 200 Fist of Guthix minigame tokens.
- Always watch random events. They might cost you a lot of time if you do not watch them. These include whirlpools, river trolls, big fish, and mysterious old men.
- To fish as fast as you can, never let your run energy recover to 100%. Once it is at 100% it will not recover more and the regeneration will be wasted.
- It is a good idea to level up your cooking along with your fishing. It will get frustrating at high levels when you need swordfish, not being able to cook your own.
- When fishing, fishing spots will move around. Keep your eyes on these or else you will be wasting time by just standing there.
- Always keep your weight at around 0-1kg while fishing. This makes easier running.
- If you see an attacking random event, always run. The random events are a waste of time seeing as you only get 1/4 of the experience you would normally get. The only random event that is worth killing are evil chickens. When one attacks you, take off all armour. By taking off your armour they will only hit around 1s and 2s on you because they use magic attack. The evil chickens may drop some feathers that are useful for your fishing.
- While fishing, you may want to do something to keep you occupied since your character auto fishes as soon as you click a fishing spot. This is to prevent boredom. Always glance at the screen to check if your character is doing what you want it to do. Though you can multi-task while fishing, i definately do NOT suggest you leave the keyboard. This is considered macroing and is against the rules.
