The fastest route to 99 Fishing, the experience rate of every method at every level, which quests skip the early grind, and what each fish is worth today.
Barbarian Fishing from 58 to 99 is the answer for most accounts, and it has been for years. Done with the 3-tick cut-eat method it is around 68,000 Fishing experience an hour at 58, 90,000 at 70 and 108,000 at 99, and it quietly trains Agility and Strength while you do it, which lifts the combined figure at 99 to roughly 144,000 an hour across the three skills. Left to run without tick manipulation it is 37,000 an hour at 58 rising to 57,000 at 99. That passive Agility and Strength is why it beats methods that are nominally faster: you are getting three skills for one grind.
If you want the ceiling rather than the sensible answer, 2-tick harpooning swordfish and tuna reaches around 133,000 experience an hour at 99 with a crystal harpoon and up to 137,000 at maximum efficiency. It is tick manipulation, which means a click every 1.2 seconds for as long as you can stand it, and almost nobody does it to 99. It is worth knowing the number exists so you can decide you do not want it.
Below 58 the route is short. Quests take the first 27 levels for free, 3-tick fly fishing trout and salmon covers 20 to 47 at 23,000 to 60,000 an hour, and drift net fishing from 47 carries you to 58 while training Hunter at the same time. Tempoross from 35 is the low-effort alternative for anyone who would rather not tick.
Every current training method in the skill and the level each one opens at, so you can find the row for the level you are on rather than reading a whole guide to get to it. This table is generated from the game's current method list and regenerated when it changes, which is why it includes methods most guides have not caught up with yet.
| Level | Method |
|---|---|
| 20 to 58 | Fly fishing |
| 35+ | Tempoross |
| 43+ | Aerial fishing |
| 47+ | Drift net fishing |
| 58+ | Barbarian Fishing |
| 62+ | Monkfish |
| 65+ | Karambwan |
| 69+ | Deep sea trawling |
| 71+ | 2-tick harpooning swordfish/tuna |
| 78+ | Leechfin Fishing |
| 80+ | Infernal eel |
| 82+ | Minnows |
| 82+ | Anglerfish |
| 85+ | Dark crabs |
| 87+ | Sacred eel |
15 methods. Level 1 to 99 is 13,034,431 experience.
Drift net fishing from 47 is the honest AFK pick, and it is the one most people land on once they stop trying to optimise. Anglerfish from 82 are slower again but close to zero effort, and they sell.
There is a real trade here that guides tend to skip. The gap between a fully engaged method and a genuinely AFK one in this skill is roughly a factor of two, not a factor of ten. Fishing is not a skill where grinding attention buys you enormous rates, which is a good argument for picking the method you will actually keep doing rather than the one with the biggest number next to it.
Raw shark
Raw anglerfish
Raw karambwan
HarpoonThe profitable end of Fishing is the slow end, which is the usual shape of a gathering skill. Sacred eels from 87, dark crabs from 85 and minnows from 82 all pay considerably better than Barbarian Fishing and all level you considerably more slowly.
Minnows are the interesting one, because they convert to raw sharks at forty to one, so what that method is really worth tracks the shark price rather than anything about fishing. At 99 that is around 25,000 minnows an hour, 27,000 with Rada's blessing 4, which is 625 to 675 sharks an hour on top of 56,000 experience. Dark crabs from 85 are around 40,000 experience an hour in the Wilderness, and sacred eels from 87 are slow at 20,000 to 26,000 but every eel dissects into Zulrah's scales. The prices on this page are live, so the figures here are what the market is paying today rather than what it paid whenever a guide was written.
Raw shark
Raw monkfishRaw anglerfish
Zulrah's scalesEvery rate below is read off the game's current training data at the level it applies to, without the angler's outfit unless the method says otherwise. Two of these columns are the same method done two ways, because in Fishing the gap between clicking every three ticks and letting it run is the whole difference between a fast method and an AFK one.
Drift net fishing and aerial fishing train Hunter at the same time, so their Fishing figure understates what the hour is worth. Barbarian Fishing adds Agility and Strength, and the cut-eat variant adds Cooking on top. Nothing else in the skill pays you in a second skill, which is a large part of why those three keep winning.
| Method | Level | Fishing XP an hour |
|---|---|---|
| Fly fishing, AFK | 20 / 50 / 99 | 13,000 / 34,000 / 50,000 |
| Fly fishing, 3-tick | 20 / 50 / 99 | 23,000 / 61,000 / 93,000 |
| Tempoross | 35 / 70 / 99 | 30,000 / 62,000 to 77,000 / 70,000 to 95,000 |
| Aerial fishing (plus Hunter) | 43 / 73 / 99 | 28,000 / 49,000 / 94,000 |
| Drift net fishing (plus Hunter) | 47 / 60 / 70+ | 53,000 / 72,000 / 89,000 |
| Barbarian Fishing, AFK | 58 / 70 / 99 | 37,000 / 48,000 / 57,000 |
| Barbarian Fishing, 3-tick | 58 / 70 / 99 | 68,000 / 90,000 / 108,000 |
| 2-tick harpooning | 61 / 71 / 85 / 99 | 70,000 / 78,000 to 102,000 / 90,000 to 117,000 / 103,000 to 133,000 |
| Monkfish | 62 / 80 / 99 | 36,000 / 38,500 / 42,000 |
| Karambwans, fish barrel | 65 / 80 / 99 | 29,000 / 35,000 / 42,000 |
| Deep sea trawling | 69 / 83 / 87 | 15,000 to 25,000 / 33,000 to 38,000 / 37,000 to 43,000 |
| Leechfin Fishing (angler's outfit) | 78 / 90 / 99 | 109,000 / 122,000 / 130,000 |
| Infernal eels | 80 / 90 / 99 | 29,700 / 31,800 / 34,000 |
| Minnows | 82 / 90 / 99 | 40,000 / 45,000 / 56,000 |
| Anglerfish | 82 / 90 | 15,000 / 23,000 (30,000 / 39,000 with diabolic worms) |
| Dark crabs | 85+ | around 40,000 |
| Sacred eels | 87 / 99 | 20,000 to 23,000 / 23,000 to 26,500 |
Rates assume no angler's outfit except where stated. 2-tick harpooning spans three harpoons, regular to crystal. Deep sea trawling's upper figures use bait; an extractor lifts the 83+ rate to 57,000 to 60,000.
Nobody should fish shrimp. Sea Slug, Fishing Contest and the Pirate Pete part of Recipe for Disaster hand out 10,612 Fishing experience between them, which is level 27 from nothing, and all three have low requirements. Tai Bwo Wannai Trio and The Fremennik Trials add another 7,812, which is level 33, though both ask more of the account.
Further up, Rum Deal gives 7,000, Perilous Moons 5,000 and Heroes' Quest 2,725, and Swan Song at level 62 is the biggest single lump in the skill. Tai Bwo Wannai Trio is worth doing regardless, because it unlocks karambwan fishing, which is one of the better AFK methods in the mid-levels and the fish sell.
The angler's outfit is 2.5% more experience across the board and comes from Fishing Trawler or, as the spirit angler's set, from Tempoross. Over a full 99 that is worth around 300,000 experience, which is a few hours of any method, so it is worth getting early rather than late.
The fish barrel from Tempoross holds 28 extra fish, which turns a banking trip into two inventories. It matters most on karambwans and monkfish, where the walk to the bank is a real share of the hour. The harpoon tier matters on swordfish, sharks and Barbarian Fishing: each step from regular to dragon to crystal raises the catch rate, and the infernal harpoon cooks a third of what you catch on the spot for passive Cooking experience at the cost of the fish.
For minnows specifically, Rada's blessing adds 2% more minnows per tier of the Kourend diary, which is why the table above shows two figures for that method.
Angler's outfitHarpoonRaw karambwan
Raw trout2-tick harpooning swordfish and tuna, at around 133,000 experience an hour at level 99 with a crystal harpoon and up to 137,000 at maximum efficiency. It needs a click roughly every 1.2 seconds throughout. 3-tick Barbarian Fishing is the realistic fastest for most players, at about 108,000 an hour at 99 before the Agility and Strength it adds.
13,034,431 experience. At a realistic 3-tick Barbarian Fishing average of around 95,000 an hour across the levels that is roughly 135 hours; at the 2-tick ceiling it is closer to 100; left to run AFK at 50,000 an hour it is about 260. Questing removes the first 27 levels, which is barely an hour of the total.
For most players, yes, and the reason is not the Fishing rate. It also trains Agility and Strength while you fish, so the effective value per hour is higher than the raw number suggests. Methods that beat it on Fishing experience alone usually lose once that is counted.
58, when leaping salmon become catchable. It technically opens at 48, but until 58 drift net fishing or 3-tick fly fishing is faster.
Drift net fishing from level 47, karambwans from 65 once Tai Bwo Wannai Trio is done, and anglerfish from 82 if you want it slower and more profitable. Karambwan spots never move, so a whole inventory fills without a click. None of them is truly idle, but all are far less demanding than Barbarian Fishing.
From 35 it is the best low-effort experience in the skill and it improves with level: around 30,000 an hour at 35, 62,000 to 77,000 at 70 and 70,000 to 95,000 at 99 depending on harpoon, with up to 102,000 possible using the solo start. It also drops the spirit angler's outfit, the fish barrel and the tome of water.
Sea Slug (7,175), Rum Deal (7,000), Tai Bwo Wannai Trio (5,000), Perilous Moons (5,000), The Fremennik Trials (2,812), Heroes' Quest (2,725), Fishing Contest (2,437) and the Pirate Pete part of Recipe for Disaster (1,000), with Swan Song at level 62 the largest of all. Sea Slug, Fishing Contest and Pirate Pete alone reach level 27.
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