Swarms of Eels!Follow

I decided I'm going to quit fishing eels and try to get into the niche market of Soft Patch of Fur, I will probably make the same amount of money. Stupid lazy people complaining about the cost of Stonescale Eels.

There will be a drop, but...

Stonescle Eels are now needed for turn-in on the rep quests for non-raid epics. We'll have to wait and see.

That's all fine as a long time fisherman since Lightning Eel and Plated Armorfish are now in demand for some things too, from what I understand. Also, Nightfin Soup still sells alright to raiders.

What would make me quit fishing is if you could only catch fish in pools, because I took up fishing specifically to stay away from having to compete with people for 'resource nodes'. Fishing is something nobody can take from you; it's just you and the fish.

Eel spawns will just make it easier for us Fishers (Fishermen, Fishergnomes, Fisherorcs ?) in the long run: there are only 3 Fisherentities in the world anyway, (Me, Mike ghod, and you - the reader). I'm guessing very few people will invest the time to level it up and fish for the eels.
There'll be a short term price drop, and then prices will stabilize. We'll all be rich this time next year though. 40 Eels for Argent dawn rep? Thats 40G at todays prices, easily 80G as demand kicks in.

As an aside, Auctioning the vendor available Strong Fishing Poles (the one with the +fishing) could make a nice short term profit, and Blackmouths (to make the oil for the Fishing Enchant on gloves) will also be more desireable. Ditto putting lures on the Neutral AH (for Tanaris people)
Get Casting!

I can make more money faster on a low level alt fishing deviate schools than I used to be able to before the schools. I would be willing to bet that the eel schools will up the money making ability of higher level fishers the same way. the price may drop a bit, but not as much as the ease of catching the eels will increase.

I know of three Azshara locales and four Stranglethorn schools. I have not looked at Feralas or Tanaris, yet. I've been avoiding Tanaris because I don't want to witness node-snatching that is sure to occur over these things.

Although in Stranglethorn I've only seen opposite-faction members try to share (unsuccessfully) my fish schools.

Ooohh...don't cha just love catching kelp from a stonescale eel frenzy? Grr..

I saw 2 schools SE of BB, and one guarded by Gorlash (elite high level giant)

I think you're correct there. I was fishing around Steamwheedle Port this weekend and would fish any swarm that showed up. Mostly Blackmouth, some Firefin, and occasional wreckage and Stonescale swarms.

Frankly, the spawn in Tanaris on the Stonescale swarms seems so infrequent, that I got more just getting them the old-fashioned way.

I jsut went for a walk to Tanaris to see if I could fish some Stonescales. I found one Pool of them right near the dock at Steamwheedle I am fishing 175 with a +100 Lure and only Caught 5 of them with about that many getting away. I am lvl 25 and made it down to Southbreak Shore without any problems. Lots of oily's and firefins also, but didn't want to waste the time fishing them too long beacuse I wanted to look for stonescales.

I also managed to ninja a chest from an Ally ?? Mage (I'm Horde) in Lost Rigger Cove while he was stopping to drink some juice. Who needs stealth when you got Priest baby....

Server, Maelstrom and a stack of SSEs will go for 17-20g

I've found that a couple of times - it seems that sometimes you actually get two swarms on top of each other, just like occasionally you find two copper mines on top of each other. You can actually see it on your minimap for the copper mines - when you scroll over the little yellow dot it says "copper" twice. Since you can't track fish swarms, probably no way to tell.

But yes, I have noticed occasionally that a swarm will seem to give double the number of fish you would expect.

As far as the type of spawn, that also seems to have a loot table of sorts, based on the location it is in. The swarm locations are fixed, but the actual swarm type will change. For example, in Menethil Harbor, the swarm points are always the same, but the types alternate between oily blackmouth and firefins, with an occasional wreckage thrown in. I would suggest if you are trying to find stonescale swarms, fish all the swarms you find in "Feralas, Tanaris, Azshara and southern Stranglethorn", then keep coming back to the swarm locations for respawns. They will sometimes be stonescales - I have seen this in Tanaris, and expect it to be true for the rest.