Whats going on guys, my names theoatrix and welcome to my updated OSRS level 1-99 fishing guide.
Guide Quick-Links
If you would prefer to watch a video version of this guide, you can watch that here. Otherwise, continue scrolling to read the 1-99 fishing guide.
Why Train Fishing
Training your fishing is essential in progressing your runescape account.
A range of important quests have a fishing level requirement.
You need level 53 fishing to obtain the barrows gloves. You need 62 fishing for the quest cape, and 96 for the achievement diary cape.
The fishing skill also unlocks a broad range of money making methods, where you can make over 100 mil getting 99 fishing with some pathways.
For ironmen, fishing is an important food source, vital for bossing and slayer.
Fishing XP Boosts
With fishing, it's important to note the xp boosting items and equipment.
By boosting your fishing level you can do methods that you havent unlocked yet.
So you could fish for sardines from level 1 fishing, if you use the boost from an admiral pie. You could also boost to level 58 for better barbarian fishing.
The angler outfit gives a 2.5% fishing xp boost with the full set. This is obtained from aerial fishing or fishing trawler, where it is faster to get it at trawler.
The full set is also required to catch minnows, and with spirit flakes, you can convert regular angler to spirit angler clothing.
Wearing this full set acts as a rope during an encounter with tempoross.
Some fishing methods require a harpoon, and there are 5 harpoons available in oldschool, where the best for the fastest experience is the crystal harpoon.
The infernal harpoon cooks some fish as you catch, the dragon harpoon is the best non degrading harpoon, the barb tailed one is equippable, and the standard harpoon is available to free to play as well.
Even if you can’t equip the dragon harpoon you can still use it for fishing training.
The dragon, infernal and crystal harpoons all have a special attack.
Consuming 100% energy, it boosts your fishing by 3 levels, essentially speeding up your fishing rates.
From Tempoross, there’s a range of notable rewards.
The tacklebox stores common fishing equipment in one inventory slot.
The fish barrel doubles your inventory space when fishing, but can only be emptied at a bank.
With spirit flakes, you have a 50% chance to catch an extra fish, but you gain no extra experience. This is useful for money makers.
The kourend achievement diary is another fishing boosting unlock. Wearing the rada’s blessing reward, you get a 2 to 8 percent chance to catch an extra fish, again with no extra experience. So another one thats good for money making.
At aerial fishing, with molch pearls you can purchase equippable rods. So this means you have an extra inventory slot for fish while training, which is most useful for afk training.
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Pathways to 99
Now ill show you 4 example pathways to 99 fishing.
First is the fastest pathway to 99 in the game, and involves 3 tick and 2 tick methods. This entire pathway will take around 105 hours to complete.
Next is probably the most common pathway to 99, and thats doing barbarian fishing… You can train regularly, or 3 tick, and will take as little as 120 hours for 99.
Tempoross is another viable pathway, where you need 35 fishing to start training there. Doing this to 99 will take around 180 hours.
There’s also the AFK training pathway, which can be done at prif fly fishing or dorgeshkaan bait fishing, and these methods will take around 300 hours to reach 99, although are very very AFK.
Low Level Training
In this next section, I'll show the best low level fishing training methods.
Questing
Questing is the fastest way to level up from level 1. You can complete the sea slug quest and the fishing contest quest to reach level 26 fishing straight from level 1. Sea slug does have a firemaking requirement, but won’t take long to get.
You can also complete the freeing pirate pete subquest, tai bwo wannai trio and the fremennik trials quest to reach level 33.
Bait Fishing
Alternatively, the fastest regular way to train your fishing is to start by catching sardines at level 1, with the +5 boost from an admiral pie. This is done with a rod and bait, and can be done at various locations across runescape.
An easily accessed area is south of lumbridge, where the fishing tutor is. Catching sardines is the fastest experience until level 20, where you unlock trout.
Shrimp
However, if youre an ironman, or dont have much money, using admiral pies can be hard. So your best option for training is to catch shrimps south of lumbridge. To get a small fishing net, you’ll get one off tutorial island, otherwise there are some free nets on the ground at this fishing location. Once you reach level 5 off shrimp, you should upgrade to a rod and bait and catch sardines at the same location, all the way until level 20.
Fly Fishing
At level 20, you unlock fly fishing, specifically trout. You could actually start this method at level 15 with an admiral pie, which would be the fastest method at level 16. Trout and salmon fishing is the fastest regular training method until level 58, where you unlock leaping salmon at barbarian fishing.
For trout, you’ll need a fly fishing rod and feathers, and to reach level 58 youll need around 5000 feathers.
In terms of fishing spots, you can train in lumbridge near the goblins, or you can go to barbarian village too.
3-Tick Fly Fishing
The absolute fastest xp per hour at level 20 is done by 3 ticking trout. To do this, you need items to start a 3 tick action, like herb tar, teak logs, kebbit vambraces or snow. So you start a 3 tick action, then click on the fishing spot, and every 3 gameticks, you keep repeating those actions.
From when you unlock this method, you can already get over 20k fishing xp per hour, scaling up to over 90k xp per hour at 99 if youre 3 ticking.
Fastest Methods
Now lets move onto the fastest training methods, and you should continue with trout and salmon until you unlock one of these methods.
Barbarian Fishing
At 58 fishing, you can catch leaping salmon at barbarian fishing, which significantly increases the xp rates from barbarian fishing.
This is done at either otto’s grotto, or near chambers of xeric. The most popular location is ottos grotto.
To be able to partake in barbarian fishing, you need to start barbarian training, which requires 48 fishing as well as 15 agility and 15 strength. Once you find the rod under otto’s bed, you can start barbarian fishing. It’s not recommended to start at level 48 since your catch rates are very slow, and you should start at 58 when you unlock the next fish.
This is another method where you can 3 tick for faster experience, and it almost doubles your xp rate by 3 ticking. Although this is also an excellent AFK training method, so both afking and 3 ticking are viable.
Your xp rates range from 20k to 100k xp per hour, depending on your level and whether you 3 tick. At the same time, you’ll get one tenth of the xp in both strength and agility. If you’re training afk, the average afk time is about 50 seconds.
2-Tick Harpooning
The next method, 2 tick harpooning, is the fastest method in the game, but it does require tick manipulation. This is done in the piscarillius house on zeah, and involves having 2 rats attack you so that they hit you every 2 game ticks. Then you click on and off the fishing spot repeatedly to fish in a 2 tick cycle.
To get the agressions of the nearby rats, you can bring runes for spells like weaken or confuse, that dont actually damage them.
When you unlock this method at 35, the xp rates arent very competitive, but once you unlock swordfish, you can reach over 70k xp per hour. At maximum, its possible to get 130k fishing xp per hour with this method, which makes it the fastest training spot in the game.
Tempoross
Next is tempoross, and this requires level 35 fishing. Tempoross provides competitive xp rates, sitting in between regular barbarian fishing and 3 tick barbarian fishing. When you unlock it, you get 30k xp per hour, scaling up to 95k at maximum.
To get to tempoross, theres a boat near al kharid bank which takes you straight there. You dont actually need any items to partake since you can obtain all of the items while youre in there.
The battle with tempoross involves catching and firing fish, then once tempoross is vulnerable, you can harpoon nearby to damage it.
While training here, you can optionally cook the fish that you catch to get cooking experience, but a decrease in fishing experience per hour overall.
With cooking, your xp rates go from a maximum of 95k to only 70k xp per hour, although cooking does yield more rewards.
Going from 35 fishing to 99, with cooking, you can expect to make around 50 mil in profit. If you dont cook, and you solely go for fishing experience, you can expect only 20 mil in profit.
Drift Net Fishing
The next fast method im showing is drift net fishing, and this is done underwater off fossil island. You require drift nets to be able to train here, and drift net fishing is actually the fastest fishing method in the game in terms of efficiency.
At level 47 fishing when you unlock it, you can already get over 50k fishing xp per hour. Which isnt really that fast, but you’ll also be getting 60k hunter xp per hour at the same time, making it very efficient. At level 70 fishing and hunter, you can get 115k hunter and 85k fishing xp per hour, which still makes it the most efficient method in the game.
The main downside of this method is that youre going to lose about 40 mil going for 99 fishing, and its also extremely click intensive.
The method involves chasing fish into the drift nets. And its as simple as clicking on the fish, and they find their way to the net. Using a trident to lure the fish is extremely important, and greatly improves the xp rates.
AFK Methods
Now lets talk about afk fishing training, and you could say that most fishing methods are afk, but these methods im about to show you are VERY afk.
Trout Prif Spot
The first method is fishing for trout and salmon to the south east of the gate to enter priff.
Depending on your fishing level, you can afk for 2 to 4 minutes at a time, and this is because the fishing spot never moves, and never despawns. At maximum, its possible to get 50k fishing xp per hour here, which isnt super fast, but since the fishing spot doesnt move, you only need to click the spot once and you’ll get a full inventory of fish.
To get to this spot, you need to have started the regicide quest to access the elven area, you dont need to start song of the elves.
Cave Eels AFK
The next afk fishing spot is bait fishing for eels in the caves to the south of dorgeshkaan. This is another fishing spot that never moves, and provides slightly slower xp rates than the previous spot.
The good thing about this spot though, is that you get more xp per click since the eels give more xp than trout and salmon. This also means theyre more AFK, with afk intervals up to 5 minutes depending on your level.
To access this area, you need to have completed the death to the dorgeshuun quest, and you’ll also need a light source.
Profit Methods
Now lets move into the profitable training methods, and fishing really starts becoming profitable once you reach level 62.
62 Monkfish
With completion of the swan song quest, you can fish for monkfish at the piscatoris fishing colony. Going from 62 to 99 here will net about 20 mil in profit, with afk times lasting around 1 minute.
In terms of xp rates, its not super fast, but its still decent compared to some of the other profitable methods.
65 Karambwans
At 65 fishing, you can catch karambwans. This requires the tai bwo wannai trio quest completed, and you use karambwanji as bait. The bait is caught to the south of tai bwo wannai, and with a small fishing net, you can afk fish for these.
Then, karambwans are caught next to the D K P fairy ring, north of the camp.
Going from 65 to 99 here will net over 80 mil in profit, but the xp rates are fairly slow if you bank them. With a fish barrel from tempoross, you can afk for around 3 minutes at a time, but without the barrel, its possible to afk for about a minute and a half.
80 Infernal Eels
At level 80 fishing, you can catch infernal eels. These are caught with an oily fishing rod and bait, the mor ul rek region of tzhaar city. With a hammer, you can turn these into tokkul, saving the need for banking. Going from 80 to 99 fishing will net about 80 mil in profit, and its also a fairly afk method.
82 Minnows
With 82 fishing, and the full angler outfit, you can fish for minnows near the fishing guild. This requires a small fishing net. Your xp rates here are pretty decent, and you’ll make about 75 mill getting to 99 here. It’s far less afk than other methods though, with only around 15 seconds of afk time.
82 Anglerfish
Also at level 82, you can start catching anglerfish. This is done in the piscarilius house, with a normal rod and sandworms as bait. This is one of the slower fishing methods out there, maxing out at 23k xp per hour at 99. However, its also one of the most profitable methods, netting 130 mil in profit from 82 to 99. It’s also decently afk at the same time.
85 Dark Crabs
With 85 fishing, you can catch dark crabs in the wilderness resource area. Theyre caught with a lobster pot and dark fishing bait, which you can buy off the grand exchange. Dark crabs give decent xp rates, up to 40k at higher levels, and its also highly profitable, netting 90 mil on your journey to 99. However, being in the wilderness its not suitable for afk training, and theres a chance youll get pked for some of your crabs. To get away from pkers, you can bring a lockpick to go into the magic axes house.
87 Sacred Eels
And at level 87 fishing, you can start catching sacred eels near zulrah. These require a regular rod plus bait, and you should bring a knife to cut the eels into zulrah scales. At maximum you can get a bit over 20k fishing and 20k cooking xp per hour, while making 115 mil on your journey to level 99. This is an afk method as well.
Ironman Tips
As an ironman, training your fishing can be done with the methods ive already shown. But in this section of the guide, ill cover some specific ironman training methods and tips.
A good place to start is getting fishing supplies. At a low level, both the port sarim fishing shop and the catherby shop are easily accessible and sell all of the equipment you’ll need. There’s also the shilo village fishing shop, right near the fly fishing spot, so its another decent option. If you’re catching anglerfish and need sandworms, you can buy them from tynans fishing supplies in port piscarilius.
Karambwans are an excellent source of food for ironmen, where theyre easy to catch, not likely to burn and they heal 18 hitpoints. Getting the bait for karambwans, the karambwanji, doesnt take long, and it can be a good idea to go out of your way to get the fish barrel for better karambwan fishing.
But overall, ironmen can follow the rest of the methods I've shown in this guide. Tempoross in particular can be a great way to get resources.
F2P 1-99 Fishing
In free to play, fishing can be a bit slower to train, and is less profitable.
This is the fastest pathway to 99 fishing in free to play.
If you 3 tick, its going to take about 170 hours to reach 99.
Once you reach level 20, you unlock the fastest method in free to play, fly fishing, with a fly fishing rod and feathers. This can be done near the goblins in lumbridge, or east of barbarian village.
You can either train AFK, or its also possible to 3 tick in free to play. Using a snow globe, you can collect snow and fish at the same time to tick manipulate, which greatly increases the xp rates. The globe is obtained from completing a christmas event.
There are a couple of profitable methods in free to play, including lobsters or tuna and swordfish. The xp rates from these are very very slow though, and the bank is far from the fishing spot, so its not really recommended to catch these unless youre playing for nostalgia.
With the addition of the below ice mountain quest, you can fish in camdozaal with a small fishing net. Its recommended to start this at 33 fishing and cooking for the better xp rates. This is a method thats more suited to free to play ironmen, since you can train your prayer level at the same time. The fishing xp rates here are very low.
Anyways, thats my complete level 1 to 99 fishing guide for OSRS. If you missed something, there are links to every section of this guide down below.