Fishing
Fishing
"I almost caught a fish this big! But it, um, got away."
Fishing is the gathering skill of the sea. Vast oceans surround Britannia on every side, and for centuries fisherfolk have earned their keep working the coastal waters and deep ocean alike. The skill is one of the most rewarding gathering disciplines in the realm: from the entry-level haul of normal fish (and the inevitable footwear) to deep-sea Sunken Treasure, Messages in a Bottle, the lethal Special Fishing Net, and the trophy-class Big Fish that may exceed 200 stones in weight, a fully trained fisher harvests both food and gold.
A fisher needs only a Fishing Pole held in one hand. Mounted or flying characters cannot fish — boots on the ground (or feet on a deck) are required.
Training
A clean progression with the Crystal Ball of Knowledge as the optimal-distance helper:
| Skill range | Method |
|---|---|
| 0 – 30 | Buy from an NPC Fisher near a dock. |
| 30 – 50 | Fish in shallow water. Stand on the shore of an island such as Moonglow or Haven and walk the perimeter. |
| 50 – 75 | Fish off a dock, two or three tiles out from shore. Step further out as skill rises. The Crystal Ball of Knowledge confirms when the distance has the Optimal difficulty rating. |
| 75 – 85 | Fish in deep water from a boat — sail out of dock and cast. Be prepared to fight Sea Serpents that surface during the run. |
| 85 – 100 | Deep-water only; gains past 85 are impossible in shallow water. The crystal ball stops reporting "Optimal" past 95 and reads "Easy" thereafter. |
| 80 – 100 (alt) | Use Messages in a Bottle SOS quests with a Fishing Scroll of Alacrity. Sail to the SOS coordinates, activate the alacrity scroll before pulling the SOS, and farm the random pre-chest loot for accelerated gains. |
| 100 – 120 | Requires the High Seas booster pack and the Professional Fisher Quest to access the 105-120 fishing scrolls. Slow gains; pass time with Fish Monger quests. |
Expect roughly 3,800 fish from 50 to 100 skill under optimal Crystal Ball conditions, plus the standard side-products: nets, treasure maps, white pearls, delicate scales, and a steady stream of footwear.
The Fishing Spot Rule
When a spot is exhausted, the character receives the message "The fish don't seem to be biting here." Move at least eight tiles away (twelve in 4×4 deep-water rotation) before fishing again. The spot eventually replenishes; in the interim, gains are still possible at the exhausted spot, only catches are not.
4×4 Fishing
While on a boat or pier, target the four diagonal tiles (NE, SE, SW, NW) of the character in rotation. Each tile can be farmed for some time before the spot exhausts, then move twelve spaces and repeat. The technique multiplies the effective fishing density of a session.
What Can I Fish Up?
The catchable inventory expands by skill threshold. Lower-skill catches keep coming at higher skill — the threshold is when that item can first appear.
Skill 0 — Always
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Footwear (Sandals, Shoes, Boots, Thigh Boots) | "Recovered from a shipwreck." Fills footwear BODs but otherwise low-value. Most fishers drop them on the spot. A pet goat will eat them; a cobbler will use them. |
| Normal Fish (4 colours) | Identical fish in four hues. Each yields 4 raw fish steaks when cut with a bladed weapon. Phased out completely at 90 skill in favour of High Seas variants. |
| Highly Peculiar Fish | Special fish — restores 10 points of stamina when eaten. No cooking required. |
| Prized Fish | Special fish — temporary +8–12% Intelligence boost for 150 seconds when eaten. |
| Truly Rare Fish | Special fish — temporary +8–12% Strength boost for 150 seconds. |
| Wondrous Fish | Special fish — temporary +8–12% Dexterity boost for 150 seconds. |
Skill 50 — High Seas Fish
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| High Seas Fish (42 new types) | Requires the High Seas booster. Caught with increasing frequency from 50 onward; replaces normal fish entirely at 90 skill. Most function as Professional Fisher Quest objectives. |
Skill 70.1 — Sunken Treasure
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Sunken Treasure | Treasure chests fished up using a Waterstained SOS from a Message in a Bottle. The only treasure chest that can be taken home and used as house storage. Treasure rating 1–3. |
| Ancient Sunken Treasure | Fished up via the rarer Ancient SOS. Always white in colour; level 4 contents. Includes a Fabled Fishing Net that summons a large group of sea monsters including the Leviathan. |
Skill 75 — Bottles and Maps
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Message in a Bottle (MiB) | When used, becomes a Waterstained SOS — or, with about 1-in-25 luck, an Ancient SOS. The destination chest awaits at the SOS coordinates. |
| Treasure Map (Level 1 or 2) | A land-adventure treasure map of very easy standard. Most new players can handle the spawns from a level 1 map. |
Skill 80 — Endgame Catches
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Special Fishing Net | Found as loot on Sea Serpents or in fished-up treasure chests; can also be fished. When used, throws out many fishing lines and spawns Water Elementals, Sea Serpents, Deep Sea Serpents, and Krakens. Comes in 14 special colours: Aqua, Blood, Brown, Charcoal, Fire, Green, Iris, Ocean, Pink, Red, Spinach, Turquoise, Violet, Yellow. |
| Big Fish | The trophy catch. Lands at the fisher's feet rather than in the backpack. Used with a Taxidermy Kit to mount as a house decoration. Random weight; the heavier, the rarer. Trophies above 20 stones display the fish's weight and the fisherman's name. Lightest on record: 1 stone (Tolo Da'Pesca). Heaviest: 225 stones (Rowan of Origin). Subspecies include Dragonfish and Marlin variants spawning in specific areas. |
| Delicate Scales | Used with Imbuing to add Use Best Weapon Skill (UBWS) to weapons. Occurs roughly twice as often as White Pearls. |
| White Pearls | Used to craft Pendant of the Magi, Arcanist's Wild Staff, Lightweight Shortbow, Spellblade of Defense, Luckblade, and Adventurer's Machete. Also an Imbuing ingredient for the regular (non-super) Slayer properties. Occurs roughly half as often as Delicate Scales. |
The Sea Serpents
A successful pull of a Treasure Map or SOS bottle in deep water summons a Sea Serpent or Deep Sea Serpent to the surface, which immediately attacks. The MiB or treasure map is found on the serpent's corpse. Sea serpents pulled by ordinary fishing — without an accompanying treasure or bottle — carry no special loot. Plan accordingly: expect combat any time a serpent breaks water, and pack at least a fishing-friendly weapon along with the rod.
The Special Fishing Net Encounter
The Special Fishing Net is the fisher's signature combat-summons item. Throwing one creates a brief calm followed by a multi-stage spawn: Water Elementals first, then Sea Serpents, then Deep Sea Serpents, climaxing with a Kraken. The full spawn takes roughly five minutes to clear with a competent group; solo, a fisher with a tame dragon or greater dragon and modest healing will manage. The reward is the loot stack from each creature plus a chance at additional Special Nets, MiBs, and rare drops.
Fabled Fishing Net and the Leviathan
Pulled from an Ancient Sunken Treasure chest, the Fabled Fishing Net summons the same creature ladder as a Special Net plus the Leviathan — a high-end peerless-class boss that drops level-class loot, including its eponymous Leviathan-themed artifacts. A serious fisher hoards Fabled Nets for organised group runs.
Quests
Fishing-related quests live primarily under the Professional Fisher Quests umbrella, added with the High Seas expansion. NPC Fish Mongers in High Seas-enabled cities accept catches of specific High Seas fish in exchange for gold and other rewards. Completing the Professional Fisher Quest line opens the path to the 105–120 Fishing Scrolls of Alacrity required for legendary fishing skill.
Useful Equipment and Items
- Fishing Pole — the universal tool. Crafted via Carpentry at 68.4 skill.
- Crystal Ball of Knowledge — turn it on and try locations until it reads Optimal. Distance from shore increases by about one tile per five skill points.
- Boat — required for deep-water fishing past 85 skill. Several sizes are available from Shipwrights; the Tokuno-style Galleon and the Britannian Ship are the High Seas additions.
- Taxidermy Kit — turns a Big Fish into a mounted trophy.
Related Skills
- Carpentry — crafts the Fishing Pole and the various boat hulls.
- Cooking — turns raw fish steaks into fish steaks (cooked) for hit-point regeneration food.
- Imbuing — uses Delicate Scales (UBWS) and White Pearls (Slayer properties) as ingredients.
- Magery or Necromancy — for the Sea Serpent encounters that interrupt deep-water sessions; a Polymorphed mage or a Wraith-Form necromancer fishes more safely than a pure dexer.
Trivia
- The original UO release in 1997 included Fishing as a skill; the deep-water mechanics, Big Fish, and the Crystal Ball of Knowledge were added across later expansions, with the bulk of the modern endgame content arriving with High Seas in 2010.
- The 14 Special Fishing Net colours were added incrementally over patches; the colour set is roughly aligned with the standard hue palette used for rare-item variants elsewhere in the game.
- The MiB-to-Ancient-SOS conversion rate of approximately 1 in 25 is one of the longest-tracked drop-rate figures in the game's modern statistics; it has remained essentially stable since High Seas.