OSRS 1–99 Fishing Guide

Fishing runs on the same engine as the other gathering skills. While your character is fishing, every game tick (0.6 seconds) the game rolls a hidden chance to catch a fish. That chance rises with your Fishing level and depends on the fish you are after — low-level fish like shrimp catch almost instantly, while sharks and anglerfish come slowly even at level 99. Crucially, you earn experience only when a fish is actually caught, never for the idle casting animation. That single fact is the foundation of every speed trick in the skill: more catches per minute means more XP per hour, and everything from special harpoons to tick manipulation is just a way to squeeze in more catch rolls.

There are several distinct fishing methods, each with its own tool, bait and set of spots. Net fishing catches shrimp, anchovies and monkfish; bait fishing with a rod catches sardines, herring and pike; fly fishing with a rod and feathers catches trout and salmon; cage and harpoon fishing handle lobsters, tuna, swordfish and sharks; vessel fishing catches karambwan; and barbarian fishing pulls up the leaping fish. Knowing which tool a spot needs — and carrying it — is half the skill, especially for new players who turn up to a lobster spot without a lobster pot.

A fishing spot will randomly move or deplete after a while, sending you to hop to the next one. How often that happens decides how AFK a method feels: some spots almost never move (cave eels, karambwan, dark crabs), which is exactly why they make the best low-effort training, while others jump around constantly and need babysitting. Because experience is tied to catches rather than the animation, high-level players use tick manipulation — deliberately interrupting the fishing action with another action so the game starts a fresh catch roll early. Done correctly this roughly doubles your catch rate, making it the fastest XP in the skill, but it is extremely click-intensive, so most players reserve it for when they want to rush the cape. The method table below shows the realistic rate for each approach so you can pick the trade-off that suits you.

Each fishing method needs its matching tool, and — unlike Woodcutting or Mining — the tool usually does not speed you up. It simply lets you fish that resource at all. A Small fishing net catches shrimp, anchovies and monkfish; a Fishing rod with Fishing bait handles sardines, herring and pike; a Fly fishing rod with Feathers catches trout and salmon; a Lobster pot brings up lobsters from level 40; a Karambwan vessel with karambwanji bait catches karambwan; and a plain Harpoon is used for tuna, swordfish and sharks. None of these are consumed by use, so one of each is all you ever need — but keep a spare in the bank, because losing your only harpoon mid-trip is a classic time-waster. If you have completed the Barbarian Training miniquest you can harpoon bare-handed, and the wieldable Barb-tail harpoon frees up an inventory slot either way.

The one place where the tool genuinely matters is the harpoon line, where the special-attack harpoons speed up high-level fishing. The Dragon harpoon (level 61, dropped by the Wintertodt and the Chambers of Xeric) has a special attack that grants a temporary +3 Fishing boost, raising your catch rate for a short while — pop it at the start of a session and re-cast it whenever the special bar refills. The Infernal harpoon upgrades the dragon one by also cooking roughly one in three fish as you catch them, which ironmen love because it produces food and free Cooking experience with no extra clicks. The Crystal harpoon, made after Song of the Elves, carries the same +3 special and the highest base catch rate of any harpoon, which is why it sits at the top of the rate bands in our table. Pairing any special harpoon with the Lightbearer ring — which doubles special-attack regeneration — lets you keep the +3 boost active almost permanently, and is a standard part of every fast harpoon setup.

The Fishing XP-boost set is the Angler's outfit. Wearing all four pieces — Angler hat (+0.4%), Angler top (+0.8%), Angler waders (+0.6%) and Angler boots (+0.2%) — gives +2.5% Fishing experience on every fish you catch. It stacks with nothing you have to manage; it just quietly multiplies your XP every time you train, and over the roughly 13 million experience it takes to reach 99 that 2.5% adds up to many hours saved. Like the Lumberjack and Prospector sets, it is the single best value upgrade in the skill.

The pieces are random rewards from the Fishing Trawler minigame at Port Khazard. The wiki estimates roughly six hours on average to collect the full set, so whether it is worth the detour depends on how much Fishing you still have left to train — well worth it if you are starting near level 1, less so if you are already in the 90s. It is covered alongside every other XP set in our Skilling Outfits guide. If you would rather not grind the Trawler, you can still earn the set's successor a different way.

That successor is the Spirit angler outfit — Spirit angler headband, top, waders and boots — an upgrade of the regular set bought with rewards from Tempoross. The Spirit angler keeps the same 2.5% XP bonus and, when the full set is worn, also acts as a built-in rope for tethering to totem poles and masts during Tempoross — saving an inventory slot in the minigame. Most importantly, training Tempoross unlocks Spirit flakes: a consumable that gives a chance to catch an extra fish each action, boosting both your XP rate and your profit. If you are already training Fishing through Tempoross, building toward the Spirit angler set is a natural side-goal that pays for itself.

The very first levels go by quickly. From level 1, grab a Small fishing net and catch shrimp (and anchovies once you can) at any net spot — Lumbridge Swamp, Draynor Village or the Al Kharid docks all work, and the Draynor spot is right next to a bank. This is about 15k XP per hour at low level. At level 5 you can switch to a Fishing rod with Fishing bait to catch sardines, then herring at 10, which trains slightly faster than netting while building up a pile of raw fish for early Cooking. At 15 you unlock anchovies, which are still net-caught alongside shrimp.

If you do not mind a little effort even this early, you can 3-tick fish from level 1. An Admiral pie gives a temporary +5 Fishing boost that lets you reach faster low-level fish than your real level allows, and the 3-tick rhythm roughly doubles the catch rate — a niche trick that speedrunners use but that most players skip. The honest truth is that the 1–20 grind is so short it barely matters how you do it. The fastest way past these levels of all is not to fish them at all but to skip them with quests, which can drop you straight to around level 27 from scratch — see the quests section below before you net a single shrimp.

One practical note for these early levels: do not throw away your catches. Raw shrimps, sardines, herring and anchovies are some of the cheapest Cooking material in the game, and burning through a few hundred of them is the standard way new accounts push early Cooking levels at the same time. If you are an ironman, banking this raw fish now saves you a separate Cooking grind later. And because net and bait fishing need almost no attention, the 1–20 stretch is a good moment to read the rest of this guide and line up the quests and unlocks that will shape the long climb to 99 — a few minutes of planning here saves hours of re-grinding with the wrong tools later.

At level 20, Fishing's classic mid-game method opens up: fly fishing for trout, and salmon from 30. Equip a Fly fishing rod, bring a large stack of Feathers (one is consumed per catch), and fish at the lure-fishing spots along the Lumbridge or Barbarian Village rivers. Rates climb from about 30k XP per hour on trout alone to roughly 40k per hour once you add salmon at 30 — salmon give more XP each, so your rate jumps the moment you hit 30 even though you are fishing the same spot. The method stays perfectly viable all the way into the high 50s.

Fly fishing is the standard, no-fuss way for a member to push from 20 toward 58, and it is the same fish that drop-trainers and ironmen rely on to stock up raw trout and salmon for early Cooking. The spots move occasionally, so it is not fully AFK, but it is relaxed enough to watch a video alongside. If you would rather not micro-manage at all, you can park here until you reach barbarian fishing at 58–70 and switch over then. A Pearl fly fishing rod, bought with Molch pearls from Aerial Fishing, is a cosmetic reskin that never degrades — nice to have but no faster. Use our Fishing calculator to see exactly how many trout or salmon stand between you and your next milestone.

A word on the most efficient mid-game choice: while fly fishing is the relaxed default, the genuinely optimal path for a member at this range is to start barbarian fishing the moment you can (level 48 for leaping trout), because it trains Strength and Agility alongside Fishing for no extra effort. Many players therefore treat plain fly fishing as a short bridge from 20 to the high 40s rather than a method to ride all the way to 58. That said, if you only care about Fishing XP and want zero distractions, fly fishing trout and salmon remains a perfectly good, low-stress choice, and the raw fish you bank feed straight into Cooking. The river spot at Barbarian Village is convenient because it sits right next to Otto's Grotto, so you can walk a few steps and switch to barbarian fishing without a bank trip.

Tempoross is a co-operative Fishing minigame — effectively the "Wintertodt of Fishing" — unlocked at level 35, and it is the backbone of the fastest route to 99 that does not require tick manipulation. You sail out to the storm, harpoon spirit pools to gather and cook fish, use that fish to attack and weaken the boss, then bank a reward at the end of each round. There is no death and no gear risk, which makes it a popular, social way to grind. With a Crystal harpoon the XP scales hard with your level: from roughly 30k per hour at level 35 up toward 90–100k per hour near 99 — among the fastest non-tick fishing XP in the game, and far less click-intensive than 2-ticking.

Because the rate is strong and all the inputs are free, a great many players train Fishing almost entirely through Tempoross from level 35 onward, never touching a conventional spot. It is also where you earn the skill's best quality-of-life rewards, which is reason enough to do at least a few hours of it: the Fish barrel (holds 28 extra raw fish, so you bank far less often on every method afterwards), the Spirit angler outfit pieces, Spirit flakes, the tackle box for storing all your tools in one slot, and cosmetic and pet rolls. A common, efficient plan is to grind Tempoross until you have the Fish barrel and the full Spirit angler set, then decide whether to keep going here for the relaxed rate or switch to barbarian fishing or 2-tick swordfish for raw speed. The method table below lists the realistic Tempoross band so you can compare it directly against the harpoon and barbarian routes.

Barbarian fishing at the pond by Otto's Grotto is the most popular all-round high-level method, because it trains three skills at once: every leaping fish you catch gives Strength and Agility experience alongside the Fishing XP. You unlock it by speaking to Otto Godblessed (which also starts the Barbarian Training miniquest), and you need a Barbarian rod baited with Feathers, fishing bait, fish offcuts, roe or caviar. You catch leaping trout from level 48, leaping salmon from 58, and leaping sturgeon from 70 — the higher the fish, the more XP across all three skills.

Fished normally, leaping sturgeon give around 48k Fishing XP per hour at level 70, rising to about 57k near 99 — a relaxed rate with a steady stream of Strength and Agility on the side, which is why it is the default "train everything at once" pick. The reason it also sits near the top of every "fastest" list is 3-tick barbarian fishing: by 3-ticking with herb-and-tar (or a knife and teak/mahogany logs) you cut the dead time between catches and roughly double the rate, pushing well over 100k Fishing XP per hour at high levels — the second-fastest XP in the skill behind only 2-tick swordfish, and the fastest method that also banks Strength and Agility. If you 3-tick and cut the fish as you go, each catch produces Roe or caviar, which doubles as bait and as high-value Cooking and Herblore material. A Pearl barbarian rod is a cosmetic, non-degrading reskin from Aerial Fishing.

The single fastest Fishing XP in the game is 2-tick harpooning swordfish and tuna, available from level 71. You fish a tuna/swordfish spot at Port Piscarilius and use aggressive NPCs (or a target dummy) to force a 2-tick cadence, clicking the spot on every hitsplat. With a Crystal harpoon the rates run from roughly 102k XP per hour at level 71, to about 117k at level 85, up to 133k near 99 — and as high as around 137k at max efficiency with a crystal or infernal harpoon. That is over 20% faster than any other method in the skill, which is exactly why speed-focused players switch to it the moment they hit 71 and stay until the cape.

The price of that speed is concentration. 2-ticking means a precise click essentially every 1.2 seconds for the whole session, with no animation to coast through — it is mentally draining and best done in short, focused bursts rather than marathon sittings. To set it up you keep auto-retaliate on with a bow equipped and no ammo, get two rats (or a dummy) attacking you on a clean 2-tick cycle, and click the fishing spot each time a hitsplat appears on you. A Dragon harpoon works almost as well as the crystal one for the first while, so you do not need Song of the Elves done to start. Pair either harpoon with the Lightbearer ring to keep the +3 special running constantly. This active route is the top rate band our method table is built on; if it sounds exhausting, Tempoross and 3-tick barbarian fishing are nearly as fast with far less strain.

If you would rather barely touch the game, Fishing has some of the best AFK methods in OSRS — spots that never move, so a single click fills your inventory every time. The standout is cave eels at Dorgesh-Kaan, unlocked after the Death to the Dorgeshuun quest. The spot never moves, you can AFK 2–5 minutes per click depending on level, and rates climb from about 11k XP at unlock to upwards of 45k per hour at 99 once you are catching two eel types — all with just a fishing rod and bait. The trout, salmon and rainbowfish spots south of Prifddinas (after Regicide) are similar non-moving spots reaching up to about 50k XP per hour; rainbowfish in particular, caught with stripy feathers, are so slow that they are practically the most AFK method in the game and a relaxed way to fish for the Heron pet.

For the mid game, monkfish at level 62 are the nostalgic AFK staple at around 35k XP per hour — the spots move every couple of minutes, but a Fish barrel makes the trips long and lazy, and you profit roughly 23m fishing them to 99. The karambwan spot on Karamja never moves, sits right next to a fairy ring, and gives around 35k XP plus the best combo food in the game, making it superb for ironmen. Cage fishing lobsters from level 40 are the original relaxed grind at about 35k XP. The most rewarding AFK option of all is dark crabs in the Wilderness from level 85 — about 40k XP per hour and heavy profit — but you are exposed to PKers there, so bring nothing you are not willing to lose. Across every one of these, a Fish barrel holding 28 extra fish roughly doubles how long each trip lasts before you have to bank.

A handful of members methods sit off the main route but are worth knowing. The standout is drift net fishing, a dual-skill method in the underwater area of Fossil Island that trains Fishing and Hunter at the same time — the favourite of max-cape and efficiency players. It requires 47 Fishing and 44 Hunter (neither boostable), access to Fossil Island via the Bone Voyage quest, and a supply of Drift nets, which are consumed as you go (roughly 80–110 per hour). You herd fish shoals into the nets, earning experience in both skills. At level 70 in both you can pull a little over 85k Fishing XP and around 115k Hunter XP per hour simultaneously, which is why two of the fastest max-cape speedruns ever recorded used drift net fishing over conventional tick manipulation. To fish underwater without your oxygen draining you wear a Diving apparatus and Fishbowl helmet (which need partial completion of the Freeing Pirate Pete subquest of Recipe for Disaster), while Flippers from the Mogres let you sprint underwater and meaningfully raise your rates. Access costs Numulites — 200 for a day or 20,000 for permanent entry. If you want Hunter levelled alongside Fishing it is the single most efficient way to do both at once; if you only care about Fishing XP, the harpoon and barbarian routes are faster.

Aerial Fishing, unlocked at level 43 after Barbarian Training, is a hands-on method at Lake Molch in the Kebos Lowlands where you use a cormorant bird (equipping a Cormorant's glove) to snatch bluegill, common tench and mottled eel out of the water with king worms as bait. Its XP is only mid-tier, but it is the sole source of Molch pearls — the currency that buys the cosmetic, non-degrading pearl rods and the fish sack — so ironmen value it for the food and the permanent tool upgrades. Finally, minnows from level 82 at the Fishing Platform south of Port Sarim (after Sea Slug) are netted in shoals and exchanged for raw sharks, a competitive but attention-heavy way to bank sharks. All three are optional detours rather than core route steps — useful for the pearl rods, food stockpiles or a change of pace, but you can reach 99 perfectly well without any of them.

Fishing is a slow earner compared with a dedicated money method, but several catches are well worth banking rather than dropping. Raw dark crabs (level 85, Wilderness) are the headline — the wiki notes you can profit well over 80m fishing them from 85 to 99 if you survive the PKers, which is excellent for a skill you are training anyway. Raw anglerfish (level 82, using Sandworms as bait, with diabolic worms a faster alternative) and raw sharks (level 76) are steady, reliable sellers and stay in constant demand as high-end food, so they never sit long on the Grand Exchange. Even monkfish earn a quiet ongoing profit while you AFK.

A few catches are valued for what they give rather than their raw sale price. Karambwan are the best combo food in the game once cooked — eaten in the same tick as another food — so PvMers buy them in bulk. Sacred eels (level 87) drop Zulrah's scales, which is handy renewable income for ironmen, and your Cooking level affects how much profit you make from them. Infernal eels (level 80) provide tokkul for Tzhaar gear. To squeeze more gold from any money method, complete the Kourend & Kebos diary and wear Rada's blessing — the easy, medium, hard and elite tiers give a 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% chance respectively to catch two fish at once. The bonus fish gives no experience, but it is free profit on every method. Check live values on our GE price tracker before committing to a long money grind.

Fishing is fully trainable in free-to-play, all the way to 99, though the very fastest and best-AFK methods are members-only. The F2P path follows the same fish as the early members route: net shrimp from level 1 (about 15k XP per hour), fly fishing trout at 20 and salmon at 30 (around 30–40k per hour) along the Lumbridge or Barbarian Village rivers, then cage lobsters at 40 and harpoon tuna and swordfish from 35/50 at the Musa Point dock on Karamja or the Catherby-equivalent F2P spots. Lobsters and swordfish are the staple late-F2P method, fished both for the steady XP and for raw food you can sell or cook.

The catch is purely one of speed and options. A free player cannot use Tempoross, barbarian fishing, the Angler's outfit, the special harpoons (Dragon / Crystal) or any of the AFK members spots like cave eels and monkfish — so the route is slower and a little more repetitive, but it never hits a wall. Karamja's docks alone will carry a free player from level 35 to 99 on tuna and swordfish. If you plan to buy membership later, the smart move is to fly fish into the high 50s while still in F2P, so that the day you upgrade you can walk straight to Otto's Grotto and start barbarian fishing at full speed.

For a free player chasing the cape, the realistic plan is shrimp to 20, fly fishing to 40–50, then a long stretch of cage lobsters and harpoon swordfish on Karamja, which top out around 35–40k XP per hour. There is no F2P equivalent of Tempoross or tick manipulation, so the climb to 99 is genuinely long — on the order of several hundred hours — and most free players treat Fishing as a steady background skill rather than a goal in itself. The upside is that swordfish and lobsters are always in demand, so the gold from selling your catch helps fund eventual membership. If you do go members even briefly, getting the Fishing Trawler outfit and a few Tempoross rewards transforms the rest of the grind, so it is worth saving toward.

The smartest opening move in Fishing is to skip the early levels with quests rather than grind them. Completing Sea Slug, Fishing Contest and the Freeing Pirate Pete subquest of Recipe for Disaster grants a total of 10,612 Fishing experience — enough to reach about level 27 from scratch — and all three have light requirements you can meet at a very low level. The Tower of Life gives a further chunk of XP. Doing these first is a far better use of your time than netting shrimp for the same levels, and it gets you to the genuinely good methods sooner.

Beyond questing, a handful of unlocks shape your whole route, so it is worth doing them before the bulk of your grind so you train with the best setup the entire way. The key ones are: Barbarian Training (bare-hand harpooning plus access to barbarian fishing), Tempoross at level 35 for the Fish barrel, Spirit angler set and Spirit flakes, Death to the Dorgeshuun for the AFK cave eels, Regicide and then Song of the Elves for the Prifddinas AFK spots and the Crystal harpoon, and the Kourend & Kebos diary for Rada's blessing. The Dragon harpoon is a drop from the Wintertodt and the Chambers of Xeric, while Aerial Fishing (level 43) earns Molch pearls for the pearl rods. Line these up early and you will never have to re-grind levels with worse tools.

A few habits make the whole grind smoother. Always carry the right tool for the spot, plus a spare in the bank — nothing wastes a trip like arriving at a lobster spot with only a harpoon. Bring a Fish barrel on any AFK method to roughly halve how often you bank, and use a tackle box to keep all your fishing gear in a single inventory slot. If you are chasing fast XP, get the best special-attack harpoon you can (Dragon, then Crystal) and re-cast its +3 special at the start of every session and whenever the bar refills. Cook what you catch as you go — raw fish double as food and as Cooking experience, and a pair of Cooking gauntlets reduces burning — and pick up our Skilling Outfits guide for the Angler's outfit details.

Fishing's skilling pet is the Heron, rolled on every fish you catch with odds that improve at higher Fishing levels and with slower-to-catch fish. There is no way to target it or boost the drop directly, but because the roll happens per catch, very low-catch-rate methods like rainbowfish at Prifddinas deliver the most chances per hour even though their XP is poor — which is why AFK fishers chasing the pet often park there for weeks. The Heron is purely cosmetic, a long-legged bird that follows you around, but for many players unlocking it is the real reason to keep clicking past level 99. Whatever your goal, plan your exact route with the OSRS Fishing calculator and browse the rest of our OSRS skill guides for the skills you will train alongside it.

To pull the whole route together: skip to about level 27 with Sea Slug, Fishing Contest and Freeing Pirate Pete; net and fly fish up to the high 40s; then pick your lane. If you want the most efficient overall account, 3-tick barbarian fishing from 58–70 banks Strength and Agility on the side; if you want raw Fishing speed, 2-tick swordfish from 71 is unbeatable but exhausting; and if you want a relaxed but still fast grind, Tempoross from 35 carries you the whole way while earning the Fish barrel and Spirit angler set. For pure AFK, cave eels, monkfish, karambwan and dark crabs let you train with a click every few minutes. Mix and match to taste — the method table below has the live rates so you can always see exactly what each option gives at your level.