Bigger Fish to Fry

My personal experience with this achievement

I've been reading in various places about the amount of fishing required for this achievement - guides say ~12 hours of fishing, and various posts say hundreds of casts/hours spent on a single rare.

If I had to give only one piece of golden advice: DO NOT FISH FROM OPEN WATER!

I obtained this achievement in a fraction of the time that has been previously noted when fishing from open water. Below I've listed the steps I took.

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2. You need to obtain some [item=139175]s. These are obtained from [npc=108825] on a floating island north of Dalaran. See my comment here for further details on getting there and more.
   
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   • If you join a fishing group in group finder (try searching "fish", "margoss", or "drowned mana") you will net [item=138777] very quickly in order to buy [item=139175]s.
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   • It's hard to say how many you will need; I would estimate about 5 per zone, but your mileage may vary. Any extras you have can be sold on the Auction House, or can be very useful for unlocking traits on [item=133755] by catching rare fish for Artifact Power.
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3. 
   
4. Using the chart below, you want to try and net all the lures you need for each fish. In each zone, find areas of water (usually streams or lakes) that have fish pools in them.
   
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   • The ideal way to tackle this is to scout out multiple pools before you pop your lure, if possible. That way, after you have exhausted one pool you can head to the next.
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   • In my experience, even if you need to trek quite a ways to find another pool, it is worth it! One may think that it is a waste of the time on the [item=139175] buff, but even factoring in travel time, the catch rate of lures from pools is so much higher, it is still worthwhile.
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5. 
   
6. As soon as you get a lure for a rare fish you haven't caught yet, save it until you find another pool (or even better, multiple pools that are close to each other). This is simply so you can have a chance for fishing up more lures, with your [item=139175] active.
   
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   • Since most of these lure buffs are only 2 minutes, once a pool is depleted simply keep fishing from open water until it expires rather than go searching for another pool (unless you know another pool is very close by).
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   • It's ok, and even ideal, to have both a rare fish lure and the [item=139175] active at the same time - the buffs do not negate each other.
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I hope this advice is helpful to you! My take home point is, fish from pools as much as possible - it saves a HUGE amount of time! The added bonus is that you'll end up with a lot of useful fish that can be sold on the Auction House or used in Cooking recipes.

If you are in not the biggest hurry (or even if you are) I find a great strategy is to set out to do World Quests, and fish from any pools you come across. You can cover most of the rare fish this way.

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Bigger Fish to Fry is a requirement to obtain the Fishing artifact - the [item=133755]!

There are a number of Rare fish in Legion, and items (bait or otherwise) that will help you catch them.
The Rare fish and items to catch them are zone specific (although some are obtainable on any shoreline of the Broken Isles).

Rare Fish

There are 18 rare fish coming in Legion that can be fished up. Each rare fish grants +5 to Fishing skill when used, consuming it in the process.

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• There are 3 Rare fish per zone, and 3 that can be caught on any coastal waters.
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• These can be fished up from a Fishing skill of 1, so this can be an effective way to power level Fishing.
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• Catching one of the rare fish listed below while fishing will grant the achievement A Cast Above the Rest. Catching them all will grant the achievement Bigger Fish to Fry.
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• All Rare fish are Bind on Pickup.
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• If you are fishing with the [item=133755] equipped, you will obtain a DIFFERENT version of each rare fish that grants Artifact Power instead of Fishing skill (e.g. you would fish up [item=139659] instead of [item=133732])
  
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  • Note that this does not retroactively apply to rare fish you obtained before getting the Artifact - the only use for these short of maxing fishing skill is vendoring for a decent chunk of change.
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• The Rare fish in the chart below are marked with a star (*)
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Fishing Bait and Items

Some of the items that help you catch Rare fish will spawn and NPC that grants a fishing buff; others contain bait, or spawn NPCs that drop bait.

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• All fishing bait buffs last for 2 minutes once used (except for [item=133704] and [item=133715], which last 5 minutes each).
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• All buffs last the full duration, except for [spell=201816], which expires as soon as you catch a bait.
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• Almost all baits can be bought/sold on the Auction House. Use this if you are having trouble with a particular fish!
  
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  • The exception to this is the [item=133723], which has a 1 minute duration in your inventory.
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• All baits are Unique, meaning you can only carry one. The further caveat to this is that you WILL NOT catch any bait that is currently in your inventory (including your bank)!
  
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  • This can be used to your advantage if you are looking for a particular bait in a zone - by having certain baits in your bags, you will ensure you do not catch them again.
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  • If you are wanting to obtain multiples of the same bait, you can put baits on the Auction House, mail them to an alt, or put them into a Guild Bank or Guild Bank Tab that only you have access to. This will allow you to catch the same bait again.
    
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    • A portable mailbox like [item=40768] (Engineering) or [item=109574] (from the Draenor garrison Engineering Workshop) is a huge boon when doing this out in the field!
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  • It is worthwhile saving some rare fish bait, in order to level Artifact Power on your [item=133755] if and when you get it.
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Items and Rare Fish by Zone

Highmountain

Val'sharah

Item

Used to Obtain

Item

Used to Obtain

[item=133709] (1)

[item=133710]

[item=133705] (3)

[item=133730]*

[item=133710]

[item=133733]*

[item=133707]

[item=133728]*

[item=133712]

[item=133732]*

[item=133708] (4)

[item=133729]*

[item=133708]

[item=133711] (2)

[item=133731]*

Azsuna

Suramar

Item

Used to Obtain

Item

Used to Obtain

[item=133701] (5)

[item=133702]

[item=133717]

[item=133737]*

[item=133702]

[item=133725]*

[item=133720]

[item=133739]*

[item=133703]

[item=133726]*

[item=133719] (7)

[item=133738]*

[item=133704] (6)

[item=133727]*

Stormheim

All Coastal Legion Waters

Item

Used to Obtain

Item

Used to Obtain

[item=133713] (8)

[item=133714]
[item=133716]

[item=133721] (10)

[item=133722]

[item=133722]

[item=133740]*

[item=133714]

[item=133736]*

[item=133723] (11)

[item=133741]*

[item=133715] (9)

[item=133734]*

[item=133724] (12)

[item=133795]

[item=133716]

[item=133735]*

[item=133795]

[item=133742]*

Notes:
* Indicates a Rare fish
(1) [item=133709] is an item that will summon a [npc=102347] that drops a [item=133710] when killed.
(2) [item=133711] is an item that will spawn a Murloc NPC, [npc=102339], that grants the buff [spell=202056], increasing your chance to fish up [item=133731].
(3) [item=133705] is an item that will attract a Druid NPC ([npc=102349]) that casts the [spell=201809] buff on you, increasing your chance to fish up [item=133730].
(4) [item=133708] is an item that will grant the buff [spell=202067], increasing your chance to fish up [item=133729].
(5) [item=133701] is an item that will summon a [npc=102338] that drops a [item=133702] when killed.
(6) [item=133704] is an item that is required to see [item=133727] pools in Azsuna.
(7) Using [item=133719] will awaken a [npc=102350], who will run around briefly and drop some [item=133738] into the water.
(8) [item=133713] is an item that increases your chances to catch rare bait in Stormheim, rather than fish.
(9) [item=133715] is an item that is required to see [item=133734] pools in Stormheim.
(10) [item=133721] contains [item=133722] when opened.
(11) Using [item=133723] will spawn a [npc=102359], which will yield [item=133741] when killed. Using it on land makes it much less dangerous than in water (hits quite hard).
(12) [item=133724] is an item that attracts flies - [item=133795] can be looted from these.

Here are the coords for where i caught all my bait and fish :) I am sure you can catch them many other places, thought i'd just share my spots.

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• Leyshimmer Blenny: (62,27) in Azsuna - Bait: Skog Toenail
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• Ghostly Queenfish: (52,35) in Azsuna - Bait: Rusty Queenfish Brooch
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• Nar'thalas Hermit: (52,35) in Azsuna - Bait: Pearlescent Conch
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• Terrorfin: (66,44) + (72,40) in Val'Sharah - Bait: Nightmare Nightcrawler
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• Thorned Flounder: (61,52) in Val'Sharah - Bait: Drowned Thistleleaf
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• Ancient Mossgill: (68,43) - In Val'Sharah - Bait: Rotten Fishbone
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• Coldriver Carp: (35,78) in Highmountain - Bait: Frost Worm
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• Mountain Puffer: (35,78) in Highmountain - Bait: Swollen Murloc Egg
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• Axefish: (38,10) in Highmountain - Bait: Message in a Beer Bottle
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• Anchient Highmountain Salmon: (35,78) in Highmountain - Bait: Funky Sea Snail
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• Thundering Stormray: (47,63) in Stormheim - Bait: Moosehorn Hook
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• Oodelfjisk: (47,63) in Stormheim - Bait: Ancient Vrykul Ring
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• Graybelly Lobster: (54,20) in Stormheim -Bait: Soggy Drakescale
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• Seabottom Squid: (54,20) in Stormheim - Bait: Stunned, Angry Shark
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• Ancient Black Barracuda: (72,55) In Suramar - Bait: Decayed Whale Blubber
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Learn from someone who did just about everything wrong while doing this achievement...

1. Fished up the [item=133719], slapped him and watched him run away. Sat there wondering why I couldn't attack him or anything. Then checked wowhead to see what I should have done. Once I realized I was supposed to follow him to "pick" up dropped fish... all the fish on the ground had despawned. FAIL

2. I entered Stormheim and within 10 minutes fished up 2 of the 3 required rare fish, thinking that this would be a breeze. Then spend the 40 minutes (along with 4 [item=139175]) trying to get the [item=133713]. I finally gave up and moved to another zone. Hours later I decided to visit the auction house and was ECSTATIC to see that someone had posted the Hook. So I clicked Buy Now but it didn't process. So I tried again but again it didn't purchase it. Then I noticed at the top of the screen it said that I was not allowed to have more than 1 of these items. I was like WHAT? Sure enough, I had put one in my bank like a month ago along with 2 other lures that had also given me grief in different zones. Multiple FAIL

3. Standing in front of a fresh new fishing pool in Azsuna, I clicked on the [item=133703] bait and frantically fish for 2 extremely short minutes. As the buff fades and not a single rare fish lands in my inventory I begin to vent... then I realized that the Conch was still in my inventory, to my horror I realized that instead of the Conch, I had clicked on the bait I had just found in the bank [item=133713] which was supposed to be used in Stormheim. FAIL

4. Fished up the [item=133704] and immediately put it on so that I could search for the pools. It seems that there is only one spot for this and it is in the middle of the Acedemy lake and CANNOT be fished without some ability to stand on the water. I actually got lucky on this one because I had thought ahead and purchased water walking potions. Had I not, this would have been another Fail.

5. All my "ocean" fish catches were done along the shore in Black Barracuda pools as recommended. So when I caught my first [item=133724], of course I dropped it on the ground, easily caught the fly and then applied the bait. After about half way through the buff and catching nothing, I realized that I needed to be in "The Great Ocean" for the buff to work. So I quickly flew out to sea, popped a Draenic Water Walking Elixir and luckily caught 2 rare fish before the buff expired. Partial FAIL

6. Due to the many casts, of course I set a macro to fish and bound it to a key so I could rapidly cast after the autoloot. Well, TWO times during this adventure, I hit the cast key before autoloot completed with a bait attached. I saw the bait show up on the screen but it never made it to my inventory. FAIL

7. Got the achievement done and then in my excitement tried to fish up the pearl at the fountain in Dalaran. After a few casts, assumed that Dalaran might not be considered as "Broken Shore" so I flew to Azsuna and started fishing on the shore. After about 5 minutes I realized that I could only find the [item=133887] in a pool. FAIL

All in all I used 34 [item=139175] - I did purchase 5 baits off the AH but then wasted about 8 lures trying to catch bait that was already in my bank :(
Lost track of how many hours I spent
I fished both pools and open water though I found that it did seem like the pools were way more successful (maybe because I focused on them). It is just that places like Azsuna is practically barren of Cursed Queenfish pools, so I had to fish in open water.
Fished up the pearl on my 3rd pool

Hopefully someone reads this and learns from my numerous mistakes and does not repeat them. Good Luck!