Fishing in Wizard101

I was quite surprised when I logged in early this morning to see fishing quests. What!? What the heck is this!?

So I gave it a whirl. It took a little bit of getting used to, but it isn't too hard. It does however burn through your Energy pretty quick. I also think they added a couple points of energy to everyone's meters for this new Fishing thing. Not sure yet.

I did the introductory fishing quests on several of my wizards, and realized a nifty trick I could do. The first quest is to go catch two different kinds of fish that are behind Zeke in that tiny waterway feeding into the larger lake in the commons. Every successful catch costs 3 energy, and every time a fish gets away, you only lose one energy. The chances are pretty good you will catch both in 3 or 4 casts of your fishing line magic. When you turn in the quest, Lucky Hookline the fishing trainer will refill your energy to full. Knowing this, the second time I did the quest with another wizard, I continued fishing until I depleted all my energy before turning in the quest. The following times I did this quest with other wizards, I did other things with the remainder of my energy, like go do pet training. That energy refill is great!

OK. Some other useful tips.
1. It's explicitly stated that fish of a certain school prefer lures from their own school. This is true, but so far not totally necessary, at least in the early levels. If you want to save your money, you can keep your ice lure for the time being and just fish with that. It will probably take longer to get fish to bite, and you will have more fish escaping (so you will use more energy to catch less fish). That's the trade-off.

2. When you attempt to cast, line up your wizard to where you want your "bobber" to land. You want it to be in front of where the fish is heading. This takes a little bit of practice to get your bobber to land where you want. It costs no energy to do this! The energy is only used up when a fish bites. Practice this a little bit without worry. The better you get at this, the faster fishing will go.

3. It's important to time when to reel in your fish. Spacebar reels in the fish. Do NOT hit the spacebar until you see the bobber go COMPLETELY in the water. Almost always, the bobber will sink partially in the water for a moment. You need to watch for the moment it goes all the way into the water. If you hit the spacebar before this happens, the fish will automatically get away, costing you a point of energy. But once it does, you have only about one full second to hit the spacebar. If you wait too long, the fish will still get away.

4. If you are looking for certain kinds of fish, note in the quest where you should be looking for them. It will also help to know what school those fish are from. The Swordroll site has this page (click here) that lists a lot of fish, what school they're from and where you can catch them. Then, use your Reveal School Fish spell (for 3 energy) to observe the school of the fish in nearby water. You can move while they are tagged, but it wears off pretty quickly. Each fish will project a ray of colored light out of them that will identify what school they belong to. If you know the fish you're trying to get is of a certain school and you are in the right area for it, look for that color and try and fish those out. I wish it stayed up longer, personally, so you can scout around, but you may wind up using the spell several times to narrow down your target.

5. When using Reveal Fish School, these are the colors coming out of the fish, by school.
Light blue ray - Ice
Orange - Fire
Red - Balance
Green - Life
Black - Death
Yellow - Myth
Purple - Storm

Since I just started fishing, I don't yet know why you would hold onto the fish you catch. They may wind up being reagents for something. You can vend them back at Lucky Hookline for a couple hundred gold. Along with with the occasional treasure chests you fish up, fishing appears to be worth it. Fish generally vend for a bit over 100 gold each, and you are bound to fish up at least one treasure chest before using up all your energy. Higher level wizards will find 600 to 1000 gold (or more) in chests. And depending on the world you fish in, you can see some fairly high gear drops in those chests too.

NOTE: Having trouble catching Sharkspeare. Olde Town is fished heavily, and it's a small area.

UPDATE: You may want to turn off friend requests while fishing. I have noticed that some people either intentionally or unknowingly send you random friend requests as your line is cast in the water. The friend request covers the screen area of where your bobber is, so you cannot tell if a fish is hooked. This can be extremely frustrating.

Follow-up link: http://alexanderhexforge.blogspot.com/2016/12/hi-all.html