I'll admit, fishing is a lot less glamorous than going out and killing bears or murlocs at lower levels but, done right, it can make you a lot more gold than the scraps you'll pick up from killing mobs.

While most fish are only good for leveling your cooking skill or feeding your pet if you're a Hunter, the real secret to making gold with fishing is to know what kind of fish are in demand and where (and what time of day) to catch them. In this article you'll learn the type of fish that will make you the most gold at auction and exactly where to catch them.

Get Your Cooking Skill Up
Although not directly related to fishing, there are many lower level recipes for fish that help you advance your cooking skill very rapidly. As you gain levels you'll get more recipes and be able to cook much of the meat and eggs that drop off of the mobs you kill. Although this isn't a huge gold-maker, cooked food sells for much more than raw food at the merchant and can often be sold for even more at auction (more on this in another report).
Specialty Fish

Speaking of recipes, certain fish are ingredients in food and profession recipes and may also impart stats boosts or special effects when eaten that make them very valuable in the auction house and very lucrative for you to catch. These fish are found at random in bodies of water of the appropriate levels but are most often found in "pools" which are represented by slightly glowing areas of water (mouse over the area to learn what kind of fish the pool contains).

Deviate Fish
Approx. Value: 1 gold each at Auction
Deviate Fish are one of the classic gold makers for very low level Horde characters and Alliance characters in the teen levels and above (assuming you're on a non-PvP server). One of the reasons Deviate Fish are so popular is that they give a random buff or other effect when eaten raw and when cooked into Savory Deviate Delight can turn the eater into either a pirate or ninja for an hour. Although the recipe for Savory Deviate Delight is very rare the raw ingredient (Deviate Fish) is fairly easy to find in ponds in the Barrens.

Deviate Fish are found in the Barrens in pools in the following locations:

Forgotten Pools: Northwest of the crossroads.
Lushwater Oasis: Just south of the Wailing Caverns.
Wailing Caverns: In open water inside the dungeon.
Stagnant Oasis: Southwest of Ratchet.

The pools of Deviate Fish rotate between the three non-dungeon bodies of water above so if the area you're at doesn't have any pools of fish visible move on to the next location as you're almost guaranteed to find one there. The catch rate for Deviate Fish is around 50 fish per hour and they sell for around one gold each at auction - not too bad for an hour of work!

Oily Blackmouth
Approx. Value: 25 silver each at Auction
Oily Blackmouth can be caught with a fairly low fishing skill and sell for several gold per stack at auction. Unfortunately for those of you with Horde characters the best place to catch oily Blackmouth is the Alliance town of Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands although they can also be found off the wharf in Ratchet, off Longshore in Westfall, and near the Gryphon Master in Auberdine. They can be found in pools at the edges of the harbor and can be fished at a rate of around 40 per hour which equates to around five gold at auction. Not as good as Deviate Fish but if you're an Alliance character on a PvP server it's much safer than travelling to the Barrens!