Realm First! Grand Master Angler

.. and here's how I actually did it (Ravencrest EU).

I had already installed WotLK about a week before, thanks to the leaked install DVD. I did however wait in line for 4½ hours, was the 10th in line to grab my Collectors Edition and raced home to activate my account. I had already positioned my dwarf at the docks in Menethil Harbor and after an endless wait, the ship bound for Northrend arrived.

After taking the full tour to reach the docks in Valgarde, realising a bit too late that jumping off before the ship enters the small tunnel/cave and swimming to the shore might actually be faster, I found myself at the Grand Master Fisherman trainer and bought the skill increase.

Having done the Outland fishing daily for quite some time, I had a good supply of +100 fishing lures and together with my trusty Seth's Graphite Fishing Pole, it meant that once I got my first 5 skill points, taking my total fishing skill to 475, it effectively meant that no more fish would get away. And after that it was basically a matter of settling in for the long grind. Effective ways of getting time to tick over, included handing out advice to new players arriving in Howling Fjord on where they could upgrade their various professions, giving pointers to players stuck on quests (as I had been fortunate to play on the beta realm), talking to guild mates who popped on and off as the night progressed, talking to some friends on ventrilo, and most importantly, watching my inventory grow full of fish.

A short server restart at about 4 am gave a quick break, but I was soon back in the fishing game, and as my skill level ticked closer and closer to 450, and there still had not been a Server First Angler announced, I got quite a bit excited. With my skill level at 449, and it having been there for 14 casts, my heart was beating quite a bit faster, when, alas, a Server First Achievement popped up in the chat window. I was certain that I had lost it, but as my sight moved to check the chat log, I noticed that it was not a Realm First! Grand Master Angler that had been found, it was instead a Herbalist.

And so, on November 13th at 05:10 AM, I became the first fisherman on Ravencrest EU to reach 450 fishing skill. Many whispers soon came my way, as well as greetings from horde friends via messenger.

I had recieved a grand total of 490 Bonescale Snappers, 174 Fangtooth Herrings, 154 Glacial Salmons, 85 Pygmy Suckerfish, as well as 13 crystallized water, 14 borean leather scraps, and 9 cobolt ore from various crates.

This will likely be one of the first "Realm First" FoSs to be done on most servers, due to the way fishing is leveled up. All you have to do to level up fishing is to catch fish anywhere. So, to get this, you have to grab WotLK at midnight, rush home, have a good computer to install it quickly, then rush off to Northrend to get Grand Master Fishing, head back to a capital city and fish for a good three hours or so and hope somebody else didn't beat you at these steps on your server.

Officially the server's Master Baiter.