osrs fishing guide

Fishing isn’t exactly the fastest 99 but it is a skill that can be done primarily through AFK gameplay, depending on the method you end up choosing. In this OSRS Fishing Guide, we will be summing up the fastest way to 99 fishing as well as some slower, moneymaking ways.

In this fishing training, we’ll start off with the fastest way to reach 99 and finish off with the most profitable way to reach 99 fishing. The primary portion of this guide will be aimed at P2P fishing methods but we’ve also added F2P fishing training methods to the bottom of this guide.

Use the navigation below to navigate to your preferred fishing method and current level!

ironman guideIf you are an ironman, please check out our Dedicated Ironman Fishing Guide

Fishing EXP Boosters

Before we get into the old school Runescape fishing guide, as always you want to make sure you are running at maximum efficiency. Just like other skills, fishing has an exp boosting outfit that you can receive from the Fishing Trawler minigame.

Anglers outfit

anglers outfit osrs gives a fishing exp boost

The fishing outfit is called the ‘Anglers Outfit’. Wearing the full anglers outfit while fishing will give you a nice, 2.5% extra experience boost. This will help a lot on your way to 99 fishing. This outfit can be obtained by doing the Fishing Trawler Minigame or by aerial fishing. 

From levels 50-99 fishing you will save around 6 hours in total by wearing the Anglers Outfit. However, it will take you around 6-8 hours to get so it’s up to you whether or not you think its worth it.

The full fishing outfit is a requirement for the minnows spot in the fishing guild, which is the most profitable fishing spot at 550k/hr. This is also the main reason people get the anglers outfit, that and fashion scape of course.

Fishing Trawler OSRS

Fishing trawler official world: 370

Inventory needed: Swamp paste, rope, bailing bucket

The fishing trawler mini-game can be done semi-AFK. You can simply spam click the hole (that’s all you have to do in fishing trawler) while you watch Netflix. Every round of fishing trawler lasts around 10 minutes. You should be able to get the full angler outfit within 8 hours.

Admiral pie osrs

You can boost your fishing level with 5 by eating an admiral pie. This can be helpful for players to get into the osrs fishing guild at level 63 instead of level 68 fishing.

Using an admiral pie to get into the osrs fishing guild is very beneficial as you have close banking options but most importantly you get a +7 level boost while fishing at the guild which will greatly increase your experience rates.

Dragon/Infernal Harpoon

dragon/infernal harpoon fishing equiment

The dragon harpoon is wieldable from level 61 fishing and 60 attack. Using the special attack (you can activate it anywhere) will give you a 20% faster catch rate than a regular harpoon.

The special attack will also boost your fishing level by 3 for a small period of time each time it’s used. This can be using for any type of fishing so it’s highly recommended to use it for the fastest possible fishing experience.

The Infernal Harpoon requires you to have 75 fishing and 85 cooking to wield. Similarly to the Infernal Axe in woodcutting, you get a 1/3 chance of cooking a fish while catching it. This gives you half the cooking experience it regularly would. It will also consume the fish. The infernal harpoon is created using a dragon harpoon and smoldering stone and holds 5000 charges. Once it’s out of charges it becomes a regular dragon harpoon.

OSRS 1-99 P2P Fishing Guide – The Fast Way

Recommendation: Complete Sea Slug quest

If you have 30 firemaking it will be well worth it for you to skip the first 24 levels of fishing and instead complete this quest. I 100% recommend you do this if you do have the required firemaking level, it will be much faster. 

Levels 1-20 Shrimp/Anchovy Fishing

levels 1-20 osrs fishing guide

Shrimp are caught with a small fishing net and give you 10 experience per catch. At level 15 fishing you will also be catching anchovies which will grant you 40 experience each. It will take you 252 shrimp to get to level 15 fishing and then 206 shrimp or 52 anchovies to reach level 20 fishing in osrs. 

Fishing equipment: small fishing net

Shrimp/Anchovy Fishing Spots: Lumbridge Swamp, Draynor Village, Catherby (P2P)

Levels 20-35/58 OSRS Fly Fishing

fly fishing osrs

From level 20 you unlock the ability to fish trout using fly fishing. This is by far the fastest way to get to level 58 fishing in osrs. From level 30 fishing you will also be catching Salmon in the fly fishing spot. Every trout will grant you 50 experience while every salmon will grant you 70 fishing experience.

Fishing equipment for fly fishing: Fly Fishing rod + feathers

EXP Rate: 25-35k/h

Fly fishing spots: Shilo Village (recommended), Lumbridge, Barbarian Village, Gnome

Levels 35-99 Tempoross

tempoross is the best way to train fishing in osrs

At level 35 Fishing, players unlock the Tempoross Skill Boss. A minigame-like fishing activity that functions similarly to Wintertodt.

Tempoross offers the fastest Fishing Experience in OSRS right now, provided you DON’T cook the fish.

The objective of the game is to beat Tempoross by fishing Harpoonfish and then placing those into cannons to shoot at Tempoross to lower its energy.

It’s very simple and the whole minigame is explained in-depth in our Complete OSRS Tempoross Guide.

EXP Rates

Here are the expected EXP Rates for Tempoross.


Fishing Level
EXP/hr
30up to 30k/hr
50up to 40k/hr
70up to 65k/hr
80up to 70k/hr
90up to 75k/hr

If you are serious about training fishing, I recommend you check out our OSRS Tempoross Guide.

Alternative: Levels 58-99 OSRS Barbarian Fishing

Barbarian fishing osrs

If you don’t want to do Tempoross, you can do Barbarian Fishing at level 58 Fishing which is more AFK.

At level 58 fishing, you unlock the ability to fish leaping salmon through barbarian fishing.

Barbarian fishing is still one of the fastest fishing training methods in Old School Runescape and many players use this method to go all the way to 99 fishing.

You will not make any money while doing leaping salmon/sturgeon fishing in osrs as you will be shift-dropping them to increase your experience rates (banking is not an option with barbarian fishing, it’s simply too far removed).

Once you reach level 70 fishing you will also start catching leaping sturgeon, this will slightly increase your experience rates. A leaping salmon grants 70 experience per catch and a leaping sturgeon grants 80 experience per catch.

With barbarian fishing, you also receive strength and agility experience as an added bonus, making this an extremely effective way to train towards max level in osrs.

Requirements for barbarian fishing:

  • Fishing level: 50 (leaping salmon)/70(leaping sturgeon)
  • Strength level: 30(leaping salmon)/45(leaping sturgeon) 
  • Agility level: 30(leaping salmon)/45(leaping sturgeon)
  • Start Barbarian training (speak to Otto) 

Barbarian fishing equipment: Heavy Fishing Rod

Barbarian fishing EXP rates:

  • 30-45K/H from 58-70
  • 50-60K/H from 70-99

Barbarian fishing location: Barbarian Outpost (games necklace/minigame teleport) 

Taking the barbarian fishing method all the way to 99 will grant you an additional 1.2m experience in both Agility and Strength.

You can get 90-110K exp using tick manipulation, 3-tick guide here.

OSRS 1-99 P2P Fishing Guide – MONEYMAKING WAY

The fishing moneymaking portion of this guide will be ranked by profit per hour.

Levels 75 – 99 Swordfish/Tuna 100K/hr

fishing tuna/swordfish osrs fishing guide

Fishing tuna and swordfish in osrs is a decent fishing money-maker. You’ll make around 100K gp profit per hour doing this fishing training method that’s pretty AFK.

To get the highest amount of fishing experience per hour you should use a dragon/infernal harpoon and of course, set up at the fishing guild for that +7 invisible level boost.

Fishing Equipment: harpoon (dragon/infernal highly recommended)

  • EXP Rate: 35-40K exp/hr
  • 100K gp/hr
  • 310 hours to 99 fishing

Swordfish/tuna fishing spots: Fishing Guild (skills necklace/Camelot teleport)

Levels 62 – 99 Monkfish 115K/hr

monkfish fishing guide osrs

Fishing monkfish is a slightly better method of training fishing for money-making purposes than swordfish and tuna. You can expect to see profits of 115K gp per hour while fishing monkfish. It’s slightly less AFK than fishing tuna/swordfish.

You also get a decent experience per hour fishing monkfish which is why plenty of people have taken this fishing training method all the way 99 in old school runescape.

Monkfish fishing requirements: 

Monkfish fishing equipment: small fishing net

  • EXP Rate: 30-40k exp/hr
  • 115k gp/hr
  • 362 hours to 99 fishing

Levels 80 – 99 Infernal Eel 250K/hr

infernal eel fishing guide osrs

Fishing infernal Eels at level 80 fishing becomes a possibility to those who own a fire cape. The infernal eel fishing spot is located in the inner city of Mor Ul Rek which requires a fire cape to enter.

You don’t need to bank here as you can crack open the infernal eel with your hammer which will give you tokkul and a slight chance of getting (1) onyx bolt tips and (5) lava shards every time.

The tokkul can be used to purchase items that you can then sell at the grand exchange for a profit. If you include the tokkul, you can make up to 250K gp per hour doing this method. It’s very AFK and the fishing spots are very close to each other, much closer than with sacred eel fishing which is why it’s a slightly better training method for making money with fishing in osrs.

  • EXP Rate: 28-35k exp/hr
  • 250k gp/hr
  • 315 hr to 99

Infernal eel fishing equipment: oily fishing rod, bait, hammer, fire gloves
Infernal eel fishing requirements:

Infernal eel fishing location: The infernal eel fishing spots are located in Tzhaar City. You can get here using a glory teleport to Karamja and then walk towards the volcano cave. Or you can use the fairy ring code BLP to be teleported directly to the entrance of Mor Ul Rek.

Levels 82 – 99 Anglerfish 361K/hr

Fishing anglerfish money making method osrs

Fishing anglerfish is another great fishing money making method that is very AFK. Fishing anglerfish can easily be done while enjoying some movies or playing on an osrs alt account while you catch some anglerfish.

If you wind up doing this fishing training method in osrs it will take you 470 hours to get to 99 fishing, that’s a lot of movies.

  • EXP Rate: 15-23k exp/hr
  • 361k gp/hr
  • 470hr to 99

Anglerfish fishing equipment: Fishing rod + sandworms

Anglerfish fishing requirements:

  • 100% Piscarilius favour

Anglerfish fishing spot location: Port Piscarilius

Levels 85 – 99 Dark Crabs 440K/hr

Fishingg dark crabs money making method osrs

Fishing dark crabs gives you a good exp rate and money rate per hour but it comes with the disadvantage that you can only fish them at level 51 of the wilderness. Meaning your chances of getting PKed are very high and this will cut into your profits. 

So take the 440k with a grain of salt, as you might get pked before you reach the bank.

Tip: If you happen to have a decent level alt account with ice barrage, you can have that account ready to log in at the wilderness resource area in the same world to anti-pk the pker.

The nearby NPC ‘Piles’ will note your crabs for 50 coins each. Meaning you can basically stay here forever. However, you should make sure you bank every now and then to reduce the amount of risk you’re carrying. Make sure you bring food and money to enter the area and to note your crabs. 

  • EXP Rate: 40k exp/hr
  • 440K gp/hr
  • 244hr to 99

Dark crabs fishing equipment: Lobster pot + dark fishing bait

Dark crabs location: Wilderness Resource Area

Levels 82-99 Fishing Minnows 550K/hr

Fishing minnows money making in osrs

Fishing minnows is by far the best way to make money with fishing in osrs. And unlike a lot of the other fishing training methods posted above, you get a good experience rate at the same time!

The downside to fishing minnows is that they are no very AFK. Minnow fishing spots move around every 15 seconds so you have to pay attention if you want to get good experience and profit rates.

You can exchange minnows for raw shark at a rate of 40 minnows for 1 raw shark. The raw sharks can then be sold at the grand exchange for profit.

Fishing minnows is far better money-making and offers higher profits than fishing sharks.

Fishing minnows can only be done at the fishing guild and you need to have the full fishing trawler outfit to get access to the minnows fishing spot.

  • Fishing minnows experience per hour: 40-55K exp/hr
  • 550K gp/hr
  • 212hr to 99 fishing

Fishing minnows requirements

  • Angler’s outfit
  • Fishing Content Quest

Fishing minnows equipment: Small fishing net

Fishing minnows location: Fishing Guild

OSRS 1 – 99 F2P Fishing Guide

Levels 1-20 Anchovies/shrimp

f2p fishing guide osrs

F2P players should just like P2P player start off by fishing shrimp/anchovies until level 20 fishing.

Fishing equipment: small fishing net

Shrimp/anchovy fishing spots: Lumbridge Swamp, Draynor Village

Levels 20-99 trout/salmon

F2P fly fishing training method to get 99 fishing

From levels 20 until 99 fishing you want to do fly fishing for the fastest way to reach 99 in f2p fishing. 

EXP Rate: 25-35K/hr

Fly fishing equipment: fly-fishing rod + feathers

Fly fishing location: barbarian village

Alternative F2P fishing methods

As a F2P player the place to be for making money with fishing is Karamja. On the docks, you can catch lobster and tuna/swordfish. The closest banking option is the bank deposit box on the docks near the monks. Since this requires you to travel back to Karamja, you’ll have to pay 30gp every time. 

Paying the fee can be avoided by completing both the dragon slayer and the corsair curse. Completion of dragon slayer also lets you access the corsair curse resource area and completion of the corsair curse will let you use the bank in the area. 

Levels 40- 50 Fishing lobster

Equipment: lobster pot + cash stack (30gp each time you sail to port sarim) 

Location: Musa Point, Karamja/corsair curse resource area

Levels 50-99 Fishing Swordfish/tuna

You should drop the tuna as the swordfish will make you a lot more money. 

Equipment: harpoon + cash stack

Location: Musa Point, Karamja/corsair curse resource area

Fishing Guild OSRS

fishing guild osrs gives a +7 level boost and can be accessed at level 68 fishing

You can enter the fishing guild in old school runescape from level 68 fishing.

The fishing guild has an invisible fishing level boost as 7 that is similar to that of other skilling guilds found in osrs.

The fishing guild contains a bank, swordfish/tuna fishing spots, sharks fishing spots, and of course, the minnows platforms are located here.

An admiral pie can be used to boost your fishing levels by 5 meaning you can enter the guild at level 63. The Admiral pie fishing boost does not stack with the 7 level boost of the guild.

Fishing Guild Location

Where you can find the fishing guild in osrs

The fishing guild is located south-west of Seers Village. You can easily get here by using a skills necklace and teleporting directly to the guild or by teleporting to Camelot and walking down from there.

Quests that grant fishing Experience

You can check out our optimal quest guide.

QuestFishing experienceFishing level requiredother level requirements
Fishing content2,43710/
Sea Slug7,175/30 Firemaking
The Fremennik Trials 2,812//
Tai Bwo Wannai Trio5,000515 Agility, 30 Cooking
Recipe for Disaster – Pirate Pete1,000/31 cooking
Rum Deal7,0005042 crafting, 42 slayer, 47 prayer & 40 farming
Heroes Quest2,7255355 Quest Points, 25 herblore & 53 cooking
Swan Song (monkfish)10,00062100 Quest Points, 40 crafting, 42 firemaking, 45 smithing, 62 cooking & 66 magic

Fishing Cape osrs

Once you reach level 99 fishing, you can get the fishing skillcape from the master fisher at the fishing guild in osrs.

The fishing cape can be used to teleport to the fishing guild and Otto’s grotto.

Summary: Osrs Fishing Guide

Hopefully, this osrs fishing guide was helpful and will aid you in getting 1-99 fishing as quickly as possible. Fishing is a very relaxed skill that you can easily train AFK while you do quests, NMZ or skilling on an alt account or even watch a movie/work/do homework.

If you want to train your fishing as AFK as possible, doing swordfish/tuna is recommended. Infernal and Sacred eels are also a great way to train AFK and make good money while you level your fishing, though the experience rates are very low.

For the highest experience rates opt for barbarian fishing as soon as you can. This semi-AFK method is currently the fastest way to get 99 fishing in the game.

Remember: you can get the Anglers outfit to boost your experience rates by 2,5% if the full outfit is worn while fishing. Plus you get nice fashionscape. 😉

Use a dragon/infernal harpoon when fishing tuna/swordfish will give you a 20% faster catch rate. The special attack will also boost your fishing by 3 levels to increase exp rates and should be used to reach 99 fishing as quickly as possible even when doing barbarian fishing.

Let us know if any information is missing so we can keep this osrs fishing guide as updated as possible.

Tip: You can use the Fishing calculator to calculate your experience left and possible profits.

ironman guideIf you are an ironman, please check out our Dedicated Ironman Fishing Guide

More osrs skilling guides