Last Updated: Jun 27, 2026
By Venom
Fishing looks simple on paper. Click a spot, wait, repeat. But the gap between a careless grind and an optimised one is enormous. Select the right methods, and you'll reach 99 in approximately 100 hours. Pick the wrong ones, and you're staring at 250+ hours of the same clicking. Most guides never explain why one method beats another at a given level, and that's the part I actually care about here.
I've taken Fishing to 99 across a few accounts now, including an Ironman where the food supply genuinely mattered. So, this isn't theory pulled off a calculator. The XP rates I give you are the ones I actually saw, and where a method isn't worth your time, I'll tell you straight.
It covers everything: the fastest route with tick manipulation, the most AFK methods for when you want to half-watch a show, the profitable spots that fund the rest of your account, plus full F2P and money-making sections. Pick whichever path fits how you actually play.
If you find fishing training boring, let our expert team handle it. Check out our Powerleveling page.
Let me be straight with you: Fishing is not the most exciting skill in the Game. But unlike Herblore or Construction, it costs you almost nothing to train, and several methods actually pay you to level up.
If you want 99 with minimal effort, Barbarian Fishing AFK is the way to go; it'll take a while. If you want it fast, you'll need to be prepared for tick manipulation and sore hands. No version of fast Fishing XP is relaxing.
What I'd actually recommend for most players: do the quests to skip the early grind, then settle into Barbarian Fishing at Otto's Grotto and 3-tick when you have the focus, AFK when you don't. You can switch between the two in the same session depending on whether you're paying attention. That flexibility is the whole reason Barbarian Fishing is the most popular route.
The Highlighted Fishing spots are the best feature of using this plugin.
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Grinding Shrimps from level 1 is a waste of time when these quests exist.
Quest | Fishing XP | Requirement |
Sea Slug | 7,175 XP | 30 Firemaking |
Sea Slug and Fishing Contest together take you from level 1 to level 26 with no actual fishing. Add the Freeing Pirate Pete subquest, Tai Bwo Wannai Trio, and you reach roughly level 33 before swinging a rod. I recommend you do the Sea Slug at a minimum; there are no exceptions on this one.
If you want 99 as fast as the Game allows, you're using tick manipulation. There are three speeds here: 2-tick harpooning is the outright fastest, 3-tick Barbarian Fishing is the most practical fast route, and 3-tick fly fishing carries you through the early levels.
Method | Levels | Requirements | XP/hr | Location | Notes |
Shrimps & Anchovies | 1-20 | Small Fishing Net | 15k-20k | Lumbridge Swamp | Starter method if Sea Slug wasn't completed. Drop all fish. |
3-Tick Fly Fishing | 20-58 | Fly Fishing Rod, Feathers, 3-tick setup | 20k-90k | Barbarian Village | Fastest early-game route. Drop all catches. |
3-Tick Barbarian Fishing | 58-99 | Barbarian training + required Skills | 50k-100k | Otto's Grotto | Most practical fast route to 99. Grant Strength and Agility XP |
2-Tick Harpooning | 71-99 | 35 Fishing, 2 aggressive rats, runes | 50k-130k | Piscarilius | Fastest Fishing XP in OSRS. Extremely click-intensive and tiring. |
Right after Sea Slug (if you did the quest), you'll be at around level 24 Fishing. If you didn't do the quest, you start at level 1. Here's the breakdown of the early levels.
Grab a Small Fishing Net and head to Lumbridge fishing spots. Fish and Shrimp are available at level 1, and at level 15, you'll start catching Anchovies alongside them. Drop everything as you fish, don't bank. Stay until level 20.
Levels 1-20: Shrimps & Anchovies (Lumbridge) | ||
Tool | Bait | Target |
Small Fishing Net | None | Level 20 |
The XP/hr here is around 15,000-20,000 XP/hr. Not great, but you're only here for an hour at most. If you did Sea Slug, you can skip this entire bracket. Sea slug will take only about 5-10 minutes.
At level 20, you unlock fly Fishing for Trout, with Salmon joining at 30. For the fastest possible XP, 3-tick it. You start a 3-tick action using an item like herb and tar, teak logs, or a knife on a log, then click the fishing spot and repeat that rhythm every 3 game ticks. From level 20, you're already pulling over 20k XP/hr, scaling toward 90k at higher levels if your ticking is clean.
Drop everything as you catch it. Don't bank Trout and Salmon. They're nearly worthless, and banking destroys your XP rate.
It is the route most players actually take for a fast 99, and it's what I'd recommend because 2-tick harpooning is really a click-intensive method. To start, speak to Otto at his grotto above Baxtorian Falls, ask about fishing rod methods, and grab the barbarian rod from under his bed. Bring feathers or fishing bait.
Even though you can fish here at 48, don't. You'd only catch Leaping Trout at a slow rate. Start at 58 when Leaping Salmon unlocks; that's where the rates jump.
I'm also attaching the realistic XP/hr for this method below. I hit around 80k - 90K XP/hr constantly at the 99 level of Fishing.
The following is the realistic XP per hour during 3-tick Barbarian Fishing.
Fish | Fishing Lvl | Str / Agi Req. | Fishing XP | Str + Agi XP |
Leaping Trout | 48 | 15 / 15 | 50 XP | 5 Str + 6 Agi |
Leaping Salmon | 58 | 30 / 30 | 70 XP | 6 Str + 6 Agi |
Leaping Sturgeon | 70 | 45 / 45 | 80 XP | 7 Str + 7 Agi |
To 3-tick, use a knife on teak or mahogany logs (or herb and tar) on the tick between catches. It almost doubles your rate compared to AFK fishing. Bring a knife too if you want to gut the fish for roe, and offcuts they double as free bait instead of feathers.
Level | XP/hr |
|---|---|
58 | ~50,000 |
70 | ~65,000 |
80 | ~80,000 |
90 | ~85,000 |
99 | Up to 100,000 |
These are the theoretical XP rates; keeping them in the real Game is nearly impossible. The full tick-manipulation pathway to 99 takes roughly 100-105 hours. I'd only commit to sustained 3-ticking if you're comfortable with tick manipulation from other skills or you're doing a focused speed run. The hand fatigue over a 100-hour grind is real.
It is the fastest Fishing method in OSRS and requires real tick manipulation. The trick: you let 2 rats attack you so they hit you every 2 game ticks, then you click on and off the fishing spot in a 2-tick cycle. To get the rats aggressive, bring runes for a non-damaging spell, such as Weaken or Confuse, and cast it on them. They will stay on you without taking real damage.
When you unlock it at 35, the rates aren't competitive, but once you've got Swordfish in the catch table, you're pulling over 60k+ XP/hr. At maximum, this hits 130k Fishing XP/hr. The catch is it's brutally click-intensive, and it takes Practice to keep the rat aggression and the 2-tick cycle going simultaneously.
You can reach Port Piscarillius by taking a ship from Port Sarim with Cabin Boy Herbert.
You can watch a YouTube video to learn it thoroughly; it is worth a try. If you can't get through it, then leave it and don't waste your time here. Do barbarian Fishing. You can watch this YouTube video to learn how to use a 2-tick harpoon properly.
The trick is to get each of these rats to attack you at a different tick so that you can click the harpoon fishing spot. You can drop the fish in your inventory by setting the left-click drop in the menu entry swapper plugin.
It is the route for players who want a clean 99 without burning out their wrists. Same Barbarian Fishing spot, same gear, you click the fishing spot and drop your inventory when it fills. No ticking.
Same as explained in Levels 1-20: Shrimps and Anchovies. You can also skip this part by doing quests in the Quests That Skip Early Fishing Levels section.
Trout from 20, Salmon from 30. Drop everything as you catch it. Once you're at Barbarian Fishing later, gut your fish with a knife for offcuts, and use those as free bait instead of feathers. It roughly halves your bait cost.
Same Otto's Grotto setup as the 3-tick route, just relaxed. Click the spot, drop when full, repeat. The 50-second AFK window makes this genuinely watchable TV territory.
Fish | Levels | Tool | Bait | XP/hr |
Shrimp/Sardine | 1-20 | Net / Rod + Bait | None / Bait | ~20k |
Trout/Salmon | 20-58 | Fly Fishing Rod | Feathers | ~35k |
Leaping Trout/Salmon | 58-70 | Barbarian Rod | Feathers | ~40k |
Leaping Salmon | 70-80 | Barbarian Rod | Feathers | ~50k |
Leaping Sturgeon | 80-99 | Barbarian Rod | Feathers | ~60k+ |
NOTE: Cost is feather-only and will shift with market prices. If you gut fish for offcuts and use them as bait, your real cost drops significantly below this.
Drift net Fishing is a method for training hunters, along with Fishing. The XP rates for Fishing and Hunter here can reach up to 85k and 110k, respectively. You can use the Digsite Pendant's teleport to Fossil Island and start there. In the underwater area of Fossil Island, drift nets are used to catch shoals in exchange for Fishing and hunter XP. To prevent oxygen level depletion underwater, a fishing apparatus and a fishbowl helmet are also required. Numulites (currency of fossil island) is also required to access the activity, 200 for a day and 20000 for permanent access.
Enable the Drift Net plugin in Runelite, as it is really helpful in Drift Net Fishing.
The following is the gear that you need for Drift Net Fishing. Using Flippers is recommended for drift-net Fishing as they let us sprint underwater and greatly increase XP rates. You can obtain them from Mogres after completing the Skippy and Mogres quest.
You can either use Dragon Harpoon to scare the fish or the Merfolk Trident.
After teleporting to the digsite, talk to the Barge Guad near the Barge to quickly travel to Fossil Island.
After reaching Fossil Island, you'll see a rowboat near the shore. Click it, then select "Row to the north of the Island".
Once you reach the North of the Fossil Island, you'll again see a rowboat, again click it and select the "Row out to sea" option, and you'll reach the chest island, where we can dive underwater and start drift net fishing. Click the rowboat and select the "Dive rowboat" option, and you'll dive into the water.
Important Note: Unequip your trident or dragon harpoon to swim under the water.
Follow the path in the given image and pay 200 Numulites after speaking with Ceto to enter the area.
You can see the actual method of drift net Fishing below. It is a great method for training both Fishing and Hunter skills simultaneously.
Barbarian Fishing gives the best XP, but it makes you basically nothing. The following methods trade some XP/hr for real GP over a full grind, adding up to serious money. Fishing genuinely starts paying once you hit level 62.
The following is an overview of the money-making methods we'll discuss in this guide.
Method | Level | Requirements | XP/hr | GP/hr | Total Profit to 99 | AFK Time |
Monkfish | 62+ | Swan Song | 30k-45k | 55k-65k | ~27M | ~1 minute |
Karambwans | 65+ | Tai Bwo Wannai Trio | 30k-50k | 150k-210k | 75M raw / 112M cooked | 1.5 min (3 min w/ Fish Barrel) |
Infernal Eels | 80+ | Oily Fishing Rod, Bait, Hammer, Ice Gloves | ~40k | 190k-225k | ~80M | Very AFK |
Minnows | 82+ | Full Angler Outfit, Small Net | 40k-60k | 250k-450k | ~75M | ~10 seconds |
Anglerfish | 82+ | 82 Fishing, Sandworms | ~23k | ~250k | ~130M | 3-5 minutes |
Dark Crabs | 85+ | Dark Fishing Bait, Lobster Pot | 20k-40k | ~290k* | ~90M | Low (PvP risk) |
Sacred Eels | 87+ | Rod, Bait, Knife | 25k Fishing 20k Cooking | ~270k | ~115M | 2-3 minutes |
After Swan Song, you fish Monkfish at the Piscatoris Fishing Colony. Going from 62 to 99 nets around 20M in Profit and around 27M profit if you sell cooked Monkfish on GE, with roughly 1-minute AFK windows, a solid balance of decent rates and steady income.
Location of the Monkfish is below.
I managed to get around the 45k/hr XP rate. It's a pretty decent money-making method in Fishing because the Bank is also near the fishing spots.
Karambwans can be combo-eaten on the same tick as another food, which makes them mandatory for high-level PvM. They heal 18 HP, have a low burn rate, and are easy to catch once you have the quest done. You catch Karambwanji bait south of Tai Bwo Wannai with a small net, then fish Karambwans at the lagoon using a Karambwan Vessel. The fairy code for Karambwanji Location is CKR.
Going 65 to 99 here nets over 75M and 112M with cooked Karambwans. I've run Karambwan sessions while doing other things in real life and barely noticed the grind. With a Fish Barrel from Tempoross, the AFK window extends to around 3 minutes at a time.
Caught with an oily fishing rod and fishing bait in the TzHaar city region. Bring a hammer to crush them into Tokkul on the spot, saving banking entirely. Going 80 to 99 here nets around 80M.
Note: You'll need Ice Gloves to use the oily fishing rod to catch the Infernal Eels.
You need a Hammer to smash the Infernal Eels into Tokkul to buy anything in the Mor Ul Rek city.
After converting the Infernal Eels into Tokkul, you can purchase various items in the city and then sell them on GE to make a good amount of GP.
The spots move every 10 seconds, so this is the least AFK among the high-level moneymakers. But the payoff is the best Shark supply in the Game trade, Minnows to Kylie Minnow for raw Sharks. Around 75M on the way to 99. It is the method I point Ironmen toward for stockpiling raid food.
I hit 60k XP per hour, but keeping it constant is very hard because the fishing spots move constantly. So, the average XP rate will be around 50K XP/hr.
You can turn minnows into sharks (40 Minnows = 1 Shark) and then sell them on GE or bank them if you're an Ironman. The converted sharks will be in note form, so you don't have to worry about banking them repeatedly.
One of the slowest methods XP-wise, but the most profitable in the whole skill, 130M from 82 to 99. Anglerfish heal above maximum HP, making them the best PvM food for high-HP accounts. For Ironmen, this is bread and butter from 82 onwards.
It is an extremely slow method, and the Max XP/hr you're going to get here is 23K at level 99 of Fishing.
Location of Anglerfish in Piscarillius.
As catching Anglerfish is a very slow fishing method, you can see my XP rates below.
Rates reach around 40k XP/hr at higher levels and nets roughly 90M to 99. The problem is obvious: it's the Wilderness, and PKers hunt this spot. Only carry what you can afford to lose. You can keep a looting bag to store Crabs in it, or talk to Piles NPC to pay a fee of 50 GP per item to make the Dark Crabs in noted form.
The fastest way to reach the Wilderness resource area is by using the Liver in Edgeville.
Don't forget to keep the Lockpick in your inventory, as it is the most recommended item to have if you're planning to catch Dark Crabs in the Wilderness Resource Area. Using the Lockpick on the Door of the Magic Axes' house will get you inside it, and you can quickly hop to another world if the Pker comes in.
Note: Not a method for Hardcore accounts.
Caught near Zulrah with a regular rod and bait. Bring a knife to cut them into Zulrah's scales immediately. Around 20k Fishing and 20k Cooking XP/hr, netting roughly 115M to 99. An AFK-friendly method and the scales are useful if you do Zulrah yourself.
You can use Zul Andra teleport to get there.
The max XP/hr you're going to get here is about 20k-25k, because it is also one of the slowest methods.
Bring a knife with you to quickly cut the Sacred Eels into Zulrah Scales, rewarding Cooking XP. You can then sell the Zulrah Scales or store them if you're going to do Zulrah yourself.
Most Fishing methods are somewhat AFK, but these are the ones where you can genuinely walk away for minutes at a time. If you are a mobile player, these AFK-friendly methods are especially helpful. You can do your other activities while training Fishings well.
A fishing spot that never moves and never despawns. Depending on your level, you can AFK for 2-4 minutes per click. Not fast, but you click once and get a full inventory. You don't need to complete Song of the Elves, just start Regicide.
You can choose among the methods described above in the Standard Route to 99; they all offer decent XP rates and a good AFK window.
Method | AFK Window | XP/hr | Notes |
Anglerfish | ~1-2 min | ~23k | Great GP |
Karambwans | ~40-60 sec | ~50k | Best GP AFK method |
Barbarian Fishing | ~50 sec | ~35-66k | Best AFK XP overall |
Infernal Eels | ~1 min | ~40k | Long window, good GP |
Minnows | ~15 sec | ~60k | Spots move least AFK |
Trout/Salmon Prif | 2-4 min | ~50k max | Never moves, extremely AFK |
As an Ironman, you can use every method above, but a few things matter more for you specifically.
2.5% XP boost with the full set, and required to fish Minnows. Get it from Fishing Trawler (faster) or Aerial Fishing. With Spirit Flakes, you can convert regular Angler's into Spirit Angler's clothing, and wearing the full set acts as a rope during a Tempoross encounter. You can see in the image below.
Piece | XP Bonus |
Angler's Hat | 0.4% |
Angler's Top | 0.8% |
Angler's Waders | 0.6% |
Angler's Boots | 0.2% |
Full Set Bonus | +0.5% (total 2.5%) |
Five harpoons exist. The Crystal harpoon gives the fastest passive rates and is best for XP. The Infernal cooks some fish as you catch. The Dragon is the best non-degrading option. The Barb-tailed is equippable, freeing an inventory slot. The standard harpoon is the F2P option. The Dragon, Infernal, and Crystal all have a +3 Fishing level special attack (100% special energy). Even if you can't equip the Dragon harpoon, you can still use it for Fishing and the spec.
The Heron is the Fishing skill pet, following you around once obtained. It drops randomly while Fishing. Based on XP per action, methods that give more XP per catch have better odds per click.
In Practice, Barbarian Fishing (Leaping Sturgeon specifically) gives the best Heron odds per click because of the high XP per action. Anglerfish are competitive. The Heron is roughly 1/5,000 per Leaping Sturgeon catch at high level, which is among the better skilling pet rates in the Game.
If you're specifically hunting the Heron, train Leaping Sturgeon from level 80 onwards and let the pet odds accumulate naturally. Chasing it intentionally is slow unless you're doing it alongside a grind you'd do anyway.
I keep repeating this because it's the most common early mistake. Sea Slug gives 7,175 Fishing XP for a short quest needing only 30 Firemaking. Grinding Shrimp from level 1 when this quest is right there is throwing hours away. Do it first.
At Barbarian Village, Trout and Salmon are nearly worthless. Banking them feels like you're saving food, but the bank trips wreck your XP rate, and the fish sell for almost nothing. Drop them. The only exception is gutting them for roe and offcuts, where the offcuts become free bait.
The 2.5% bonus compounds across your whole grind. Players who rush to 99 and grab the outfit afterwards get nothing out of it. Get it before you start the serious levels.
Tick manipulation is genuinely faster, but only if you do it right. Players who jump in cold get rates barely above AFK and conclude that ticking is overrated. It isn't. Practice the rhythm for 20-30 minutes before you commit to a long session. Watch how the cycle works, get it into muscle memory, then grind.
Fishing rewards patience more than skill. The early levels fly by once you've done the quests, the mid-game flows at Barbarian Fishing, and the high levels hand you both food and GP if you pick the profitable spots. The whole thing is more bearable than its reputation suggests, as long as you're not forcing yourself to 3-tick every single hour.
If I had to give you one route: quests to 33, fly Fishing to 58, then Barbarian Fishing to 99 with 3-ticking mixed in when you've got the focus. Slot in Karambwans, Anglerfish, or Tempoross whenever you want money or variety. That's the path that gets most players to 99 without losing their minds.
Good luck with the grind. The cape is worth it!
Learn how to play the OSRS Fishing Trawler, including requirements, strategies, and how to get the Angler outfit and Heron pet.
This F2P Fishing Guide will help you level up efficiently, highlight all key locations, and explain the best method to maximize XP and profit in f2p areas.
OSRS Drift Net Fishing guide with XP rates, best setup, and strategies to maximize Fishing and Hunter training per hour.
