31 articlesDeep Sea Trawling is a new fishing activity added with the release of the Sailing skill in Old School RuneScape (OSRS).
This activity allows you to capture hordes of fish by trawling. Which, for those not in the know, means using a big net to grab a lot of fish at once! It’s quite a good way to get a lot of fish and Sailing XP.
In this quick guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to get started with this activity.
Deep Sea Trawling Fishing Guide | OSRS
Let’s kick things off with the basic requirements to do Deep Sea Trawling. There are a few of them, as follows:
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- Level 69 Fishing
- A Trawling Net facility on your boat. The earliest one is the Rope Trawling Net, which unlocks at Level 56 Sailing.
Aside from that, we also recommend having a Fathom Stone and a Chum Station on your boat, if you have access to them.
The Fathom Stone can be used to make it easier to find shoals, which are your fishing spots. Meanwhile, the Chum Station allows you to make Fish Offcuts, which you can use as bait.
Additionally, it’s a good idea to fill a Keg with Trawler’s Trust if you’ve unlocked it. It gives you a 5% chance to get extra fish. To unlock it, you’ll need to chart 50 seas.
Aside from that, it also helps to have Fish Crates on your ship. Those can hold a total of 400 fish at a time, which allows you to carry much more fish than just using the Cargo Hold.
While these last few facilities aren’t really mandatory, they do greatly help make trawling more efficient!
Similarly, we recommend having crewmates with high Deckhandiness assigned to your trawling nets. A minimum of 2 Deckhandiness is required, but you would ideally have a crewmate with 4.
It’s also a good idea to have a crewmate with high Helmanship. As part of the process, there’s a point where you need to operate both the trawling net and helm the ship. You’ll need crewmates to handle whichever one you can’t operate.
The Fishing Process
To start trawling, you must first locate a shoal. They appear as circular moving lines on the water’s surface, similar to a whirlpool of sorts.
Once you spot one, park your boat on top of it. Then, use the boat interface in the bottom right to lower your nets.
Pay attention to any red chat notifications at this point, as it will warn you if your net is too high or too low for the fish you’re trying to catch!
When you’re at the right depth, a blue bar will appear above the shoal. At this point, you just need to wait it out until it’s nearly empty.
Once it’s about to end, though, get ready! The shoal will start to move and you need to follow it with your ship.
A crewmate will need to handle either the trawling nets or helm the ship, depending on what function you’re performing. If you’re helming the ship, crewmates need to handle the nets, and vice versa.
Eventually, the shoal will reach a stopping point. At this point, it’ll stay still and a blue bar will appear above it again. So, you just have to repeat the process of fishing at it by lowering your net and that’s it!
Rinse and repeat the process until you’re satisfied with your haul. Remember to check your trawling net to collect your rewards and put them in a fish crate or your Cargo Hold! The trawling net can hold up to 200 fish at a time.
That’s everything you need to know to start Deep Sea Trawling in OSRS! We hope this helped you get started with this late-game sailing activity.
