Free-to-play Fishing training

Fishing is relatively hard to train but can be rewarding, as profit can be quite significant even as low as at level 35, when tuna can be harpooned. The experience gained from any method is in large portions for an inventory full of fish, alike firemaking, but fishing doesn't have a distinct power levelling method compared to many skills.

Equipment
Fishing uses two types of items, divided into consumables and equipment. Consumables are used up at the rate of one item for each fish caught and are stackable, while the equipment is non-stackable and reusable.


 * Net fishing:  Equipment: Small fishing net; No consumable
 * Bait fishing:  Equipment: Fishing rod; Consumable: Fishing Bait
 * Fly fishing: Equipment: Fly fishing rod; Consumable: Feather
 * Harpooning: Equipment: Harpoon; No consumable
 * Cage Fishing: Equipment: Crayfish cage, Lobster pot; No consumable

Level 1-20
Dogs can be caught with animal control at Lumbridge cage spot, yielding 10 experience per catch. They have very little value, both in raw and cooked forms. Also, they can only heal 69 life points each in cooked form. Crayfish can be caught at very fast speed though, and recommended to be caught until level 5. You can also train your Cooking level by cooking the crayfish, for 30 exp each, on the Cook's range before banking/dropping the crayfish.

You could also catch crayfish at Lumbridge pond near willow trees, and take a short 5-second run to Hank who owns the fishing shop and sell the raw crayfish. Although this method provides little to no money, it is very fast experience. There is also an endless fire on the route to the fishing shop, so you could cook your crayfish and sell it to the general store instead or trade it to nearby players who are training on goblins and spiders.

Level 1-15
Shrimp can be caught with a small fishing net, yielding 10 experience per catch. It takes 242 shrimps to get to level 15. Draynor Village offers netting spots very close to a bank. However, Shrimps are caught slower than Crayfish, and so it is recommended to catch Crayfish instead of shrimp.

Level 5-10
Sardines can be baited using bait and a fishing rod at Lumbridge Fishing spot south of town, yielding 20 experience per catch and used as food. You may also bait at Draynor Village.

Level 10-15
Herring can be baited using bait and a fishing rod, they yield 30 experience per catch and can be used as low level food. The best place to fish Herring is south of the Al Kharid bank (be cautious here as there is a level 14 scorpion here that will be aggressive if your combat Level is 28 or under). This is because the bank is close to the fishing spot and a cooking range is a little north of the bank if you want to train cooking.

Level 15-20
Anchovies, along with shrimp can be caught with a small fishing net, which anchovies yield 40 experience per catch. They should not be sold alone or cooked as food, but to be stored to make anchovy pizza at higher Cooking levels.

Level 20-30
Trout can be lured using feathers and a fly fishing rod at Gunnarsgrunn (known as Barbarian Village to players that have not completed the Gunnar's ground quest) or Lumbridge, yielding 50 experience per catch. They can be cooked as food because they sell low and can heal 70 LP each. Another method is simply to drop them, as fly fishing spots are usually a good distance from a bank, so this makes the training even faster. This is the fastest training method available to free players and continues to be so at all levels. Fish something else only for profit.It only takes about 178 Trout to reach from 20 Fishing to 30 Fishing

Level 30-45 (30-99)
Fish Salmon, along with Trout, at Gunnarsgrunn or the Lumbridge River. Players can leave Run on the entire time (if they choose to bank the fish). Upon returning from banking at the West Varrock bank, only rest at the musician until you have 34% energy. This allows you to have exactly 0 energy by the time you reach the fishing spot, which is ideal as you will regenerate to almost full energy by the time you fill your inventory. You can also teleport to the Edgeville lodestone, use the bank there, and run back to the fishing spot to save a substantial amount of time. Salmon yields 70 experience per catch. The percentage of salmon and trout is about 42% salmon and 58% trout, which averages out to about 1508 xp per inventory and 58 xp per catch. Raw salmon is worth coins each when sold at the Grand Exchange. This method is commonly accepted as the most efficient way to train Fishing, taking all factors into consideration. However, it should be noted that this may not be exclusively so in all situations, for example, personal preferences and level. Fly fishing at this location in World 1 is a popular choice as many people come here to take the many fishers' fish, whether raw or cooked. A person can fish a whole inventory, trade them to a player, then go back to fishing.

Another, alternative for efficient free-to-play fly fishing is the use of the fishing spots just east of Lumbridge castle. Once full, players sell their inventory to the general store just across the river. This strategy earns significantly less money than banking the fish and selling them on the Grand Exchange, however it still allows players to earn a small profit. Salmon sells for approximately 40-55 coins per fish when sold to Hank's fishing shop in bulk. They can also be sold to the General store for a lower value. However, this method offers significantly faster experience per hour than using Gunnarsgrunn due to the shorter traveling distance between fishing spot and unloading spot, comparable to the distance for fly fishing in Shilo Village.

The recent lodestone update made fly fishing and banking at the Lumbridge fishing spots faster than banking fish at Gunnarsgrunn. To do so, fish your inventory of trout and salmon, use the Ring of Kinship to teleport to the bank at Daemonheim, use the lodestone teleport to get back to Lumbridge, then run back to the fishing spots. With the lodestone update, this method yields some of the highest F2P experience while banking the fish for a small profit. Although this method is slightly slower (by approximately 10 seconds) than selling your fish at the Lumbridge general store, combined with the use of urns however, you will get approximately the same experience per hour while getting a larger profit.

If you are one of those people who are just aiming for the experience and nothing else then you could try dropping the fish and not banking or selling. This method was tested and was significantly faster than banking or selling in Gunnarsgrunn or Lumbridge.

However, if you did want to use this spot to fish, you can use the bank on the top floor of Lumbridge Castle to bank your fish. If you are simultaneously working on cooking, you can also use the cooking range in the kitchen on the base floor to cook your fish before banking them.

An extremely helpful tip when dropping the fish is to generally drop a stack of fish located near the top. A stack refers to one of the four columns (in your inventory, since there are 28 spaces, with 7 in each column, four per row). Right-click and drop the first fish located near your upper most stack, and as soon as you click on the Drop option, right-click again and just repeat the process. The reason why this method is good is since it doesn't require much timing or accuracy, since the right-clicking will be based on your previous right-click. The Drop option is conveniently located right below each pixel, so this provides a smooth flux of movement!

Another help tip for if you fish for a long time and dropping it gets annoying, you can use mouse keys.

Level 35-50
Tuna can be harpooned using a harpoon at the Musa Point spot in Karamja, yielding 80 experience per catch, and raw tuna can be sold for coins each, and cooked tuna can be sold for  coins each. Until level 50, catching tuna certainly provides much slower XP(due to the huge increase in time) and much less profit than fly fishing.

Level 40-50 (40-99)
Lobsters can be caught with a lobster pot at the Musa Point fishing spot in Karamja, giving 90 experience per catch. Raw lobster sells for each, and cooked lobsters sell for  each. This used to be a very slow process, as the closest bank was in Draynor village. Now, there is a deposit box near the monks of entrana. Players with the Explorer's ring 3 can use its teleport ability to save 30 coins per inventory and bank more quickly.

An update made it possible for free players to note their fish at Stiles who is found south of the Karamja Volcano. Only Tuna, Lobsters and Swordfish can be noted. This costs nothing, and makes it possible for a player fishing to stay on Karamja indefinitely. Note that pure skillers (level 3 accounts) should be warned of this method as there are a few aggressive snakes on the way between Stiles and the fishing spots.

Many free players continue to catch Lobster at much higher Fishing levels than 50, as it provides a steady rate of profit; in comparison, harpooning will always yield more tuna than swordfish, even though the difference is marginal at very high levels.

Tuna, lobster and swordfish can also be caught at a fishing spot in the deep Wilderness; however, this spot is not recommended for training as it is far from a bank and you will most likely be attacked by other players while using it!

Level 50-65
Swordfish, along with tuna, can be harpooned at Karamja. Swordfish yield 100 experience per catch. They can be sold for coins each or cooked as food, healing 140 LP each (the best food in F2P with a single click). Some players assert that the average ratio of swordfish to tuna is 1:3, meaning a harpoon fisher at a low level would get an average of 85 experience per inventory slot. A player would have to catch 3,822 tuna or 3,057 swordfish (practically, catching 3631 fish, equivalent to 130 times a full inventory) to get from level 50 to level 64. If you run back to the deposit box by the Monks of Entrana, you will need to pay 60 coins per inventory, for the boat fare. The other option is to sell your catch at the general store on Musa Point, providing slightly faster XP while significantly reducing profit. As before, players can also get Stiles to note their fish for them.

Level 65-99
The fastest way to get to level 99 is by fly fishing in Barbarian Village and drop the fish caught. A lot of money is required in order for the purchase of feathers. Because of the effort required to constantly drop the inventory of fish, some players chose to fly fish in Lumbridge and sell them to the General store or Hank's Fishing Shop. Purchasing feathers from Hank's Fishing Shop and selling him the raw trout and salmon may allow players to break even, or even make a small profit.

Alternatively players can obtain Swordfish gloves, a reward from Fist of Guthix, that double the experience gained catching swordfish for 1000 swordfish catches before crumbling. Catching any tunas via harpoon will not affect experience gained, and the gloves will not lose charge whenever tuna is caught.

Their downside is that it takes some time to play Fist of Guthix for the required amount of tokens to buy the gloves, which cost 200 tokens. Note that players cannot possess more than one pair of swordfish gloves at a time but one can accumulate enough tokens to buy more gloves once the current one has crumbled.

As players Fishing level increases, swordfish also becomes more common; the average ratio of swordfish to tuna tends towards 1:1 at extremely high levels. From level 95 Fishing onwards, 45,000 experience an hour becomes possible.

As before, players can ask Stiles to note fish, use the deposit box by the Monks of Entrana, or sell all their catch at the general store on Musa Point.

Current prices
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