OSRS Fishing Training Guide 2026 - Best Methods From 1 to 99 (Legit & Botted)

February 4, 2026 · By Jake

TL;DR: Shrimp to 20, fly fishing to 58, barb fishing to 99 if you want speed. Karambwans or anglerfish if you want money. Tempoross is the chill middle ground. I’ve done all of these and I’ll tell you which ones are worth your time - and which ones are safe to AFK or automate.

The Fastest Path to 99 Fishing (No BS)

Look, fishing is one of those skills where the “meta” hasn’t changed much in years. And honestly? That’s kind of nice. You’re not going to open Reddit tomorrow and find out Jagex reworked the entire skill. It’s fish. You click the fish. You wait.

I got 99 fishing on my main back in 2022 playing mostly legit, and it took me like 3 months of casual play. Then I did it again on an alt in about 2 weeks with some help from automation. Night and day difference. Here’s what I learned both times. Levels 1-20: Shrimp and Anchovies. Net fishing in Lumbridge or Draynor. This takes maybe 30 minutes. Don’t overthink it. Just do it. Levels 20-58: Fly Fishing at Barbarian Village. Trout and salmon. Boring as hell but it’s fast. You’ll get around 30-40k xp/hr here depending on your click speed. The spot is right next to a bank. well, kind of. You’ll be dropping fish. Power fishing is the move. Levels 58-99: Barbarian Fishing. This is the speed meta and has been forever. You’ll get 50-70k xp/hr scaling up to around 90-100k xp/hr at higher levels if you’re tick manipulating. Plus you get passive Agility and Strength XP which is actually huge. Most people don’t realize you can get like 15-20 agility levels just going to 99 fishing this way. Here’s the full breakdown:

|---|---|---|---|---|

| 1-20 | Shrimp/Anchovies | ~10k | Garbage | No |

| 58-99 | Barbarian Fishing | 50-100k | 0 | Semi |

| 35-99 | Tempoross | 40-60k | 100-200k | Semi |

| 65-99 | Karambwans | 25-35k | 150-250k | Very |

| 82-99 | Anglerfish | 15-25k | 200-350k | Very |

| 82-99 | Minnows | 35-45k | 150-250k | No |

Hot tip: If you’re doing barb fishing and you’re NOT 3-tick manipulating, you’re leaving like 40% of the XP on the table. It’s annoying to learn but it makes a massive difference. There are YouTube guides that explain it way better than I can.

The Money Making Route (For People Who Aren’t in a Rush)

Not everyone needs to speedrun 99. I get it. You work full time, you play a couple hours a night, and you’d rather make some gp while training. Same boat, man. Karambwans at 65+ are my personal favorite. Fairy ring to Karamja, fish with a vessel, bank with fairy ring. It’s chill, it’s profitable, and the spots barely move. Raw karambwans have been sitting around 400-600 gp each for most of 2025-2026. Not getting rich, but it adds up. Anglerfish at 82+ are the real AFK king. You need 100% Piscarilius favour (which is annoying to get, I won’t lie) but once you’re set up, you basically click once every two minutes. I used to fish anglers while watching Netflix and honestly forgot I was even playing half the time. They sell for decent money too since they’re used for max HP boosting. Tempoross deserves its own mention. It’s the fishing version of Wintertodt and it’s honestly pretty fun. You get decent XP, a chance at the tackle box and other uniques, plus fish you can sell. I’d say it’s around 40-60k xp/hr depending on your level and the team size. The reward pool has some nice stuff too - the spirit angler outfit gives bonus fishing XP. If you’re purely going for money and don’t care about XP rates, sacred eels at 87+ are surprisingly solid. You cut them for Zulrah scales and the gp/hr can hit 300k+ at higher levels. Nobody talks about this method but it’s been consistent for me.

Which Methods Are Safe to Automate?

Alright, the part you’re probably actually here for. I’m not gonna pretend this is a pure skilling guide when half my readers are here because they want to bot fishing on an alt while they raid on their main. I see you.

Fishing is honestly one of the safest skills to automate in OSRS. The actions are simple, the timing is naturally variable (fish spots move), and the inputs are low-APM. Compare that to something like agility where the ban rate is insane, and fishing looks pretty damn good.

That said, not all methods are equal when it comes to risk:

| Method | Automation Risk | Notes |

|---|---|---|

| Barbarian Fishing | Low-Medium | Popular bot spot, but lots of legit players too |

| Karambwans | Low | Isolated location, simple actions |

| Anglerfish | Very Low | Super AFK naturally, hard to distinguish from legit |

| Tempoross | Medium | Minigame = more complex, scripts can mess up |

| Minnows | Medium-High | Requires constant clicking, pattern is detectable |

| Monkfish | Medium | Known bot hotspot at Piscarilius | Anglerfish and karambwans are the sweet spot for automation in my experience. They’re naturally AFK activities so even if you’re running a script, the behavior looks basically identical to a real player watching YouTube on their second monitor. Which. is exactly what a real player does. I’ve been running a PowBot Mobile setup on an alt for karambwans and it’s been pretty smooth. The nice thing about mobile botting for fishing specifically is that the tap-and-wait gameplay is literally how you’d play on your phone anyway. There’s no weird mouse movements to worry about.

Word of caution: Don’t bot fishing at the same spot for 16 hours straight. I know that sounds obvious but I’ve seen people on forums talking about running fishing scripts overnight and then being shocked they got a macro major. Break handlers exist for a reason. I do 2-3 hour sessions max with breaks in between, and I mix in some legit play on the account too. If you want to compare different clients and figure out what works best for your setup, there’s an OSRS bot comparison guide I put together that covers the major options.

My Actual Recommendation

Here’s what I’d do if I was starting a fresh fishing alt today in 2026:

Levels 1-58 - Just do it legit. It takes like 4-5 hours and you don’t want to risk a fresh acc on low-level content where Jagex watches closely.
Levels 58-70 - Barb fishing, legit or lightly automated with long breaks.
Levels 70-82 - Mix of Tempoross (legit, it’s fun) and karambwans (automated when I’m at work).
Levels 82-99 - Anglerfish all day. AFK paradise. Automate with good break patterns. Total time to 99 doing it this way? Probably 3-4 weeks if you’re running sessions daily. Could be faster if you push it but I’d rather have the account alive at 99 than banned at 90.

Fishing is honestly the perfect “set and forget” skill for casual botters. Low risk, decent money, and you don’t have to babysit the script every 30 seconds praying it doesn’t walk into the wilderness or something.

Just don’t get greedy. That’s been the lesson for me across every skill I’ve trained this way. The accounts that survive are the ones where I played it smart, not the ones where I tried to squeeze every possible hour out of them.

Good luck out there. Go catch some fish.