FISHING

The fishing rack and the bottles

any water, by a campfire / Fishing 140 / a buff, bloated fish, racks to sell / alone

Nixie Brassbottom says the new money in fishing is in a wooden rack. She told me so at her table in Booty Bay and charged me for the drink she was holding while she said it. I bought the blueprint on the auction house with most of what I had, built a rack, set it down by a campfire on the beach below the town and fished until the hour ran out. I caught a great many ordinary fish and nothing else.

Why it pays

The rack is new in Forever. In our data it's a Fishing recipe at skill 140, taught by Blueprint: Fishing Rack, and it takes two Simple Wood, one Crystal Vial and two Raw Mithril Head Trout. The travellers say that by a campfire it gives an hour of uncommon catches, bloated fish that you open for a gem and sometimes a ring or a necklace. A vendor pays a silver at most for a bloated fish, so the money is in what's inside. The rack sells too, for price unknown, and the blueprint for price unknown. If you own the blueprint, making racks for other people can pay better than fishing with them. The dear part is the Crystal Vial, which costs 25 silver at a trade supplier.

What you need

Fishing 140. The blueprint, which no vendor in our data sells; the travellers got theirs from Gelihast in Blackfathom Deeps, a level 26 elite, or off the auction house. And skill well above the water you fish: one traveller needed about 300 before a bloated fish came up in water meant for level 30. The hut after the rack needs Fishing 300 and two Bolt of Runecloth, cloth of item level 55, so it waits for later.

Where

Any water your skill is well above. The bloated fish are said to match the water, so low water gives low gems. The bottles belong to Stranglethorn, where the travellers say the Sunday fishing contest takes twenty Speckled Tastyfish for a Message in a Bottle that can hold rare plans. Our data knows that bottle only by its name. It does know the twelve School of Tastyfish along the coast, and Jang near Booty Bay, who pays 23 silver for five of the fish.

How

1. Get Fishing to 140 and find or buy the blueprint.
2. Buy the wood and a Crystal Vial. Fish the two trout or buy them.
3. Light a campfire by the water, set the rack down beside it and look for the buff.
4. Fish the hour in water you outskill by a long way.
5. Open the bloated fish and sell the gems on the auction house.

What can go wrong

The skill. If it's too low for the water, the buff gives you nothing, as I found out in Stranglethorn. The blueprint costs the most, and since nobody in our data sells it, its price is whatever the last seller asked.

BASTIAN'S VERDICT At 140 it's worth having for the racks you can sell. The bloated fish wanted more skill than I had.