Sculpin mussel fishing in World of Warcraft
The next item on the list of ingredients for a fish feast is the Prawn Style Musselback Sculpin. These fish are found in various regions of Northrend, however the best place to catch them is Lake Kum’uya, which is just south of Amber Ledge in the Boreal tundra. This lake has several pools that respawn quickly enough that you always have one to head to. The advantage of this close concentration of groups is that you save a lot of travel time and thus increase your win rate per hour.
There are some mobs around the lake that may attack your peaceful fishing trip, but since this is a Northrend starting area, they shouldn’t be a problem for a level 80 character.
For this experiment, I fished until I caught exactly 200 Sculpins, which took 90 minutes. During that time I also caught materials and sucker fish worth a total of 100g. Based on last week I’m keeping my 200 Sculpins to turn into fish feasts for a later item, however we can see the other options you have for selling them.
If they are sold raw they are 85 shillings each on my server, which is a very low price considering the last few weeks Glacial Salmon sold for 1g26 each. The only explanation I can think of is that more of the Northrend logbooks send anglers to areas where Sculpin can be caught. Many diary anglers like to catch some fish to sell in the AH while diarying and this results in a higher supply. As anyone with a basic understanding of economics knows: higher supply = lower price.
The other two options you have are to cook the fish in Grilled Sculpin for a +60 attack power and +40 resistance buff. Or by adding spices you can make the best Sculpin Poached Northren which gives +80 attack and +40 resistance. However, I strongly recommend against cooking these fish if you intend to make a profit. The Poached Northren Sculpin is featured in my AH Tool and retails for 14s each. This would mean that you lose 71s of value per fish when adding spices and cooking it. However, the most likely result is that none of the cooked fish is sold and you are left with a bag full of smelly fish.
The reason for the low sellability of this product is that there are much better consumables for people to use if they are looking for a boost in DPS. According to http://www.maxdps.com for a hunter (my main character) this fish gives a +29.86 DPS boost which is exactly the same as the fish feast that feeds an entire raid instead of just one person. For people who want a DPS boost without sharing their fish with the raid, there is also the option to buy Blackened Dragonfin, which is just as easy to make as Poached Northren Sculpin but provides a +38.74 DPS boost.
For those interested in the hourly rate if they sell these fish raw, the math would be (200*85s=170g). Add the 101g for other stuff you catch while fishing these and you get a total of 271G. Divide that by 90mins and times by 60 and you get a pretty weak 180g/hr.
Just like last week, I also ended up helping a new fisherman. As I was moving around the lake fishing in the pools, I noticed there was a level 70 sitting in the middle that was cast into open water. After about half an hour, I took a break from fishing and decided to say hi and ask what he was doing. It turned out that this was his first character and the only reason he had come to Northrend was to try and fish for the turtle mount. I explained that he could only be caught from the pools. He showed him what the pools looked like and that he should try to get the weather-beaten journal that would give him the ability to track fish. He was so happy to receive this help that he offered me all the loads of fish that he had just caught in the lake. I refused as it was mostly junk fish, but the moral of the story still exists. Help others and they will probably try to help you.
