Fishing is simple in ESO, it requires no skill points and no equipment. All you need is to find some bait and a fishing hole.
Fishing Basics
First, let’s talk about the basics of fishing.
There are 4 types of fishing waters: Saltwater, Lake, River and Foul. And it’s usually pretty easy to tell where they are by looking at the map with the exception of foul.
How To Find Fishing Holes?
If you’re on PC, you can use addons to show fishing holes. But for those on consoles, it’s best to look up a fishing map for the zone that you’re in if you’re struggling to find a certain kind.
Some bodies of water can be a lot rarer to find in some zones, and areas where you expect a fishing hole to be could have none at all. As an example, Summerset has over 150 saltwater fishing holes, but less than 10 foul fishing holes. And Cyrodiil somehow only has 5 saltwater fishing holes on the entire map.
What To Do At A Fishing Hole?
Once you find the fishing hole, open the bait wheel, and select the matching bait type. Make sure the type matches or you’ll pull up more junk than fish.
What Can I Catch?
When a fish bites, you can reel it in, getting a regular fish, a trophy fish, sacks of materials, or bait and junk.
You can take the regular fish to a provisioning station and filet them for a chance at a profitable provisioning material, Perfect Roe.
In addition to regular fish, there are trophy fish in every zone with in-game achievements tied to them, and the “Master Angler” title from catching all trophy fish in all 20 base game zones.
Intro To Fishing Buffs
When you’re going for trophy fish achievements, the following buffs will speed things up a bunch.
- Champion Points: Reel Technique Angler’s Instinct
- Consumable: Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl
- Companion: Sharp-as-night
Fishing With Friends
Fish with friends!
Your trophy fish drop rate increases for each person you’re actively fishing with. This includes people you’re not grouped with!
Slottable CP Passives For Fishing
Slot the 2 slottable CP skills for fishing.
They are “Reel Technique”, which decreases the time for a bite by 25%, and “Angler’s Instincts”, which increases your chances of catching trophy fish, equivalent to the bonus you get from fishing with a friend.
Both skills are found in the green craft tree, and you need a minimum of 195 points in the tree to be able to slot both.
Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl (Summerset)
If you have the Summerset chapter, you can fish on Artaeum to reel in Waterlogged Psijic Satchels.
These satchels have a chance to drop the Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl recipe. Unlike regular recipes, this recipe is account-bound on pickup and cannot be traded or sold.
But, if you wish to buy it, or don’t own the expansion, you can buy Waterlogged Psijic Satchels with your ESO Gold from guild traders instead.
When eaten, the Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl grants the passive “Lure Allure”. Lure Allure causes fish to be attracted to you, shortening the time needed for fish to bite.
Water on Artaeum doesn’t fall into the 4 types. It is “Mystic” water, which you won’t see anywhere else. Unlike the other types, you can use any type of bait to fish here.
Also Read: How To Get The Most Of Your Play Time In The Elder Scrolls Online? - Daily Routine Guide
Sharp-as-Night Companion (Necrom)
And if you have the Necrom chapter, unlock the companion Sharp-as-Night.
His passive bonus decreases bite time and increases trophy fish rates.
Note that the increase in trophy fish is offset specifically by a reduction in chance to catch bait, so your regular fish catch rate is not reduced by Sharps’ permanent passive.
Sharp also loves fishing, so he will be your best friend in no time if you bring him along.
Trophy Fishing
Each zone will take 30 minutes to an hour to collect all trophy fish, which is a huge improvement over the time it took before these buffs were added to the game.
But fishing has a ton of RNG involved and even with these buffs, there will be trophy fish that will just seem to avoid you. One particular fish took me over 2 hours to hook. You will reel them in eventually!
RNG can be cruel, and some zones will take longer than others.
Cyrodiil Trophy Fishing
When you’re trying for trophy fish in Cyrodiil, you should pick a campaign and a time of day where fewer people are to make this as painless as possible.
Just be sure to pay attention to your surroundings. Other players fishing will usually leave you alone, but PvP players are always out there.
Using a PvP build could come in handy, but isn’t really required if you’re in an unpopulated area. Sharp-as-Night can’t join you, but the other fishing buffs can all be used.
When fishing for Perfect Roe, you should not use the Anglers Instinct CP passive. And fishing without other players can be more efficient. The rest of these buffs will speed up the amount of fish you can get to filet. Since Perfect Roe typically has a 1% drop rate, the more regular fish you can catch, the higher your chances of getting some.
If you want to further improve your numbers, make sure you’re using a character with Max Mount Speed and the Continuous Attack support passive. The faster you can get from hole to hole, the more fish you’ll pull in.
How Many Perfect Roe Collected Completing Master Angler?
I caught 2,249 fish in total while completing Master Angler.
When filleted I walked away with 26 Perfect Roe, demonstrating the typical 1% drop chance. I got lucky and pulled a few extra, but it still equals out to 1.15%.
Conclusion
Zenimax has also started including new unlocks for fishing with the Necrom Master Angler achievement, which is part of the Savior of Necrom achievement and unlocks a glowing Nix Ox mount.
It is awesome to see them giving collectible rewards for the amount of time that these achievements require.
