So this was brought up this morning in guild chat, so I thought I'd make a quick guide to fishing in Tamriel. Please note, this is all PRE 1.6.
First, we will discuss bait. Bait comes in 4 basic types, and 4 additional "advanced" bait. The 4 basic baits are found throughout Tamriel from various little critters. They are Crawlers, Insect Parts, Guts, and Worms.
Crawlers are found from creepy crawly things on the ground. See those little scorpions running about? Kill them and get yourself some crawlers.
Insect Parts are of course insect parts. They are found on interact-able things like fleshflies, butterflies, and wasps.
Guts are also found from critters on the ground, albeit slightly larger ones. Rats and lizards among others.
Worms are found from harvesting plant nodes. You can also find worms and guts from certain undead mob types.
Next, we will discuss water types. There are 4 water types throughout Tamriel. Ocean, River, Lake, and Foul Water. Distinguishing among them can be tricky, especially foul water.
Rivers are usually noticeable by the surface of the water moving quite rapidly. Also, most water near waterfalls (even the bottom part that dumps into an apparent "lake") is also classified as a river.
Oceans are big and blue. These really are the easiest to distinguish.
Lakes are the inland version of oceans. Little or no moving water. Clean looking.
Foul Water is perhaps the trickiest to identify. Places like the steam pools in Eastmarch are clearly foul water, but others are not so obvious. Really, it often comes down to trial and error and recognizing the fish you caught as a species of a certain water type.
Before we go on to the species of fish you will catch, lets discuss Used Bait. IT IS USELESS!!! Destroy it! It has no purpose other than to tell you that you used the wrong bait for the water type you are in. If you catch used bait, switch your bait type to the proper one. Also, Simple Bait can be purchased at vendors. Don't use it either. Now we will discuss each water type again and what you can catch there. In addition to the standard fish in all zones, each zone also has 12 rare fish for you to catch (except the starter islands, they have only 1). The twelve rare fish correspond to 2 green and 1 blue fish per each water type. I recommend Rare Fish Tracker to help you keep track.
River waters will yield you River Betty, Salmon, and Fish Roe.
Lakes will yield you Silverside Perch, Spaetail, and Shad.
Oceans will yield you Dhufish, Longfin, and Minnows.
Foul Water will yield you Slaughterfish, Trodh, and Chub.
The final thing are the "advanced" bait. I really don't know if using the other baits are any more useful in terms of chances to catch rare fish or not. And there is nothing advanced about them. I just needed a way to distinguish them from the bait you can easily and readily find. Like the normal bait, each "advanced" bait is useful on one water type. Of course it is not used on the waters you found it. Below is a handy table thing that will summarize it all.
WATER TYPE: BAIT, SECOND BAIT (FISH YOU CATCH, BAIT YOU CATCH)
Foul water: Crawlers, Fish Roe (Slaughterfish, Trodh, Chub)
Rivers: Insect Parts, Shad (River Betty, Salmon, Fish Roe)
Lakes: Guts, Minnows (Silverside Perch, Spadetail, Shad)
Ocean:Worms, Chub (Dhufish, Longfin, Minnow)
Hope this helps you enjoy fishing a bit more in Tamriel. Remember, when patch 1.6 comes in 4 or 5 weeks fishing will be much more useful (so they say at least)
