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One often overlooked way to earn gold in World of Warcraft is through fishing - both in the fish you catch and in the extras that often come along with each catch. Here are a few types of fish and related items that you can catch and sell for a very nice profit in the auction house.

Stonescale Eel
Approx. Value: 25 silver each at Auction
Stonescale eel are used in a wide variety of Alchemy recipes and require a fishing skill in the 150 range and a character level in the thirties to get to the areas in which their pools spawn. Steemwheedle Port in Tenaris, Feathermoon Stronghold, and Azshara are good places to fish for Stonescale Eel.

One thing to note is that Stonescale Eels are nocturnal meaning that you're only going to find them in fishing pools between 12am and 12pm game time. There also tend to be more pools available when it's raining. Pretty cool that Blizzard included these kind of real world mechanics into the game!

The catch rate for Stonescale Eels is around 20 per hour which equates to around five gold per hour of fishing. Of course you'll also pull up a variety of other fish like bigmouth clams (including some with pearls - see below), mightfish, yellowtail and lobster so your gold per hour will likely be much higher.

Firefin Snapper
Approx. Value: 10 silver each at Auction
Firefin Snapper are used to create Fire Oil which is a necessary ingredient in several crafting (Alchemy and Tailoring) professions. The best places to catch Firefin Snapper are off the southern tip of Booty Bay in Stranglethorn Vale, Azhara, and Baradon Bay in the Wetlands. These fish are also nocturnal meaning you'll catch more at night than during the day.

Although Firefin Snapper is worth about half the value at auction of Oily Blackmouth or Stonescale Eels you'll catch double the number as their pools tend to produce a higher catch rate. Alliance players - head to Baradon Bay in Menethil Harbor to catch both Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper at the same time!

Black and Golden Pearls
Black Pearl Approx. Value: 3 gold each at Auction
Golden Pearl Approx. Value: 5 gold each at Auction
Pearls are found in some of the clams you catch while fishing. Although there are easier ways to get pearls than fishing (these will be covered in another report), getting one of these pearls while fishing is a very nice bonus. You'll find these pearls in around half of the bigmouth clams you catch and, in an hour of fishing for Stonescale Eels in Azshara, I tend to catch around six bigmouth clams which means a bonus ten gold per hour of fishing.

Time to Go Fishing!

Fishing is one of the more overlooked ways to make gold in World of Warcraft - especially at lower levels. When I discovered how lucrative fishing can be I literally went from always poor low-level characters (I'm not big on twinking - I like each character to pull his or her own weight) to having more than enough gold to buy all my skills and the best magic weapons for my level at auction.