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.

Equipments
Fishing is oriented to several kinds of equipments, diversified into dispensables and catchers. Dispensables are used up with rate of one item for each fish caught and are stackable, while catchers are non-stackable and do not degrade over use.


 * Net fishing: Catcher: Small fishing net; No dispensables
 * Bait fishing: Catcher: Fishing rod; Dispensable: Bait
 * Fly fishing: Catcher: Fishing rod; Dispensable: Feather
 * Harpooning: Catcher: Harpoon; No dispensables
 * Cage Fishing: Catcher: Crayfish cage, Lobster pot; No dispensables

Level 1-20
Crayfish can be caught with a Crayfish cage 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 20 life points each in cooked form. Crayfish can be caught at very fast speed though, and recommended to be caught until level 20.

Level 1-15
Shrimp can be caught with a small fishing net, yielding 10 experience per catch. It take 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 10-20
Herring can be baited using bait and a fishing rod, they yield 30 experience per catch and can be used as food.

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 Barbarian Village 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.

Level 25-30
Pike can be baited at Barbarian Village or Lumbridge. Although Pike gives 60 experience per fish, their catch rate is very slow compared to lure fishing. They should not be considered for training. The main use of fishing pike is for the Easy section of the Lumbridge and Draynor Diary.

Level 30-45(30-99)
Fish Salmon, along with Trout, at the Barbarian Village. 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. Alternatively, one can travel to Edgeville bank through the back entrance into Edgeville. Salmon yield 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 and cooked. A person can fish a whole inventory, trade them to someone, then go back fishing.

Another, less-popular 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. Salmon only sell for approximately 6-9 coins per fish when sold to the general store in bulk.They can also be sold to Hank's fishing shop in Lumbridge. However, this method is significantly faster experience than using the Barbarian Village due to the shorter traveling distance between fishing spot and unloading spot, comparable to the distance for P2P fly fishing in Shilo Village.

Level 35-45
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. Catching tuna is certainly slower than fly fishing until level 45.

Level 40-50
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. Although this is very slow, and not very time efficient without the Draynor Village Cabbage Patch teleport from the Explorer's ring 3.

Level 50-64
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 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.

Level 65-99
Swordfish gloves, a reward from Fist of Guthix, double the experience gained catching swordfish for 1000 swordfish catches before crumbling. Swordfish gloves are only affected by, and only affect, swordfish catches. They do not affect, and are not affected by, any tuna catches.

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 you cannot possess more than one pair of swordfish gloves at a time. You may only buy another pair after the previous pair has crumbled.