Mr. Pinchy - El's Extreme Anglin' - WoW Fishing Guide
((advertisement))

This page summarises how to catch Mr. Pinchy. For a more detailed guide, see Catching Furious Crawdad and Mr. Pinchy.

Mr. Pinchy

About Mr. Pinchy

Usage: Mr. Pinchy can be used three times, with a 2 day "cooldown" between uses. Known results of using Mr. Pinchy are one of:

  • Benevolent Mr. Pinchy: Summons a non-elite guardian which assists you in battle. 10 minute duration.
  • Gift box with 5 Super Healing Potions and 5 Super Mana Potions.
  • Magical Crawdad Box containing a Magical Crawdad non-combat pet.
  • Mr. Pinchy's Blessing: Health increased by 500. This effect persists through death and is considered a flask. 2 hour duration.
  • Furious Mr. Pinchy: Non-elite attacks you and your party. Corpse cannot be looted.
Want to know the chance of each wish? Contribute your results to this discussion.

Vendor Value: 20s.

Catching Mr. Pinchy

Detailed mapping of hard to find areas is shown below.

Notes: Binds when picked up. Areas with Highland Mixed Schools require a flying mount or (Druid) flight ability to reach (unless you are summoned). There are 10 confirmed pool locations in Blackwind Lake (near Skettis), 4 in Lake Ere'Noru (above Allerian Stronghold), and 3 in Lake Jorune (above Stonebreaker Hold). There are no pools in Silmyr Lake.

Detailed Guide: Catching Furious Crawdad and Mr. Pinchy - How to catch Furious Crawdad, and Mr. Pinchy, who may grant you a rare Magical Crawdad pet.

Commentary: Around 1 in 500 catches from Highland Mixed Schools are Mr. Pinchy, but this is very variable. Since each Highland Mixed School contains an average of just three catches, expect to fish over 150 pools. You may need to catch several Mr. Pinchys before gaining the rare Magical Crawdad Box (with Magical Crawdad non-combat pet). Highland Mixed Schools are very commonly fished, yet there are only 17 possible spawning locations, and each typically respawns 60-65 minutes after it was last fished (emptied). So if other people have been fishing within the previous hour (very likely), you may struggle to find any Highland Mixed Schools. Pools around Blackwind Lake are patrolled by elite giants, however these can be avoided by simply flying away when the giant approaches. Those able to walk on water (Priests and Shamen) can fish while standing in the lake, and so avoid most monsters completely.

Related Achievement (requires 3.0): Mr. Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box: Fish your way to Mr. Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box. For full strategies, read the Catching Furious Crawdad and Mr. Pinchy topic.

Where to catch Mr. Pinchy
Water/pool typeMinimum skillAreasCatch RateCommonly caught fish
To castTo avoid get aways% of CatchSource
Highland Mixed School - Inland405500<1%Sample: 1060.

The catch rate is the approximate proportion of all catches in the area from the water/pool type that are the named fish.

Images

Magical Crawdad pet.

Detailed Mapping

Map: Map showing the location of the three elevated lakes.

Other Tomes

Learn More

Comments

These remarks have been written about this subject by El's readers in the forums. Hopefully you will find them useful.

Topic: Mr. Pinchy is the Devil!

  1. By Regirumm, on 25 January 2008:

    Every weekend I go out to Sketis and the other two lakes and mass produce over 300 Crawdads . I've been doing this for over two months. My total is getting near 2000 crawdads, and still no Mr. Pinchy. My fishing is 505, so he isn't getting away. Anyone who has caught him please add input.

  2. By Hy, on 26 January 2008:

    You have to really like fishing. Or you can try to be zen about it. But working numbers will only give you statistical probabilities.

  3. By Balazar, on 26 January 2008:

    Just keep on fishing. You may have run into a bad luck streak - such things happen.

    I've caught 943 Crawdads, and 2 Mr. Pinchy's, which seems to be about average.

  4. By el, on 26 January 2008:

    Indeed; you are simply unlucky. WoW is rather unforgiving about very rare drops/catches. I've gone for over 1000 catches, only to get two Mr. Pinchy from the same pool. I guess the process is random, when it perhaps shouldn't be so random: Ideally the chance of catching it should increase the more you try, then there would be a better correlation between effort and result.

  5. By Hiltje, on 27 January 2008:

    I have a friend who caught Mr. Pinchy and received TWO pets out of her three chances. Random drops are indeed very strange things!

Topic: Mr: Pinchy after getting Magical Crawdad

  1. By Gihelle, on 16 March 2008:

    So, I'm doing my hourly clean on Highland Mixed schools and fished my third Pinchy.

    Simple and short question: is it worth to get after getting a Magical Crawdad box? Only one of five wishes would actually interest me (healing/mana pots, which I turn into Injectors on my Engineering alt). My bank is bloated too, so I won't have enough space to keep it as a token of fishing pride.

    Any ideas?

  2. By heraklen, on 17 March 2008:

    Me for sure wont fish for more Mr Pinchy whenever I get the pet.
    (I'm using my 2'nd Mr Pinchy , 4th wish )

    Only reason to continue is if you want to get Stam-food for your guild or sell it , otherwise I think you should leave the pools alone so someone else might get lucky :-)

Topic: I did it! I did it!

  1. By Longhunter, on 01 April 2008:

    I caught Mr. Pinchy last night SWEET! For weeks trying I got him and right before this jerk cow whirlwinds me, then kills me :( But I got Mr. Pinchy!

    I have not used him yet. I will wait till this weekend I don't want to loss him if I die.

    Longhunter

  2. By Petre, on 01 April 2008:

    I was tanking Prince in karazhan about two months after BC came, before people really new about mr. Pinchy. I went to click on a potion and accidentally summoned Angry Mr. Pinchy, who proceeded to own one of my fellow priests who wasn't pay attention to her own health!

    It was the most glorious wipe ever.

  3. By Balazar, on 02 April 2008:

    Heh, that makes me want to save my next Mr. Pinchy for a dungeon run!

  4. By Longhunter, on 02 April 2008:

    lawl i think i just peed myself reading that post! thats great last night i used Mr.P in SSC and he gave me a health buff like a flask sad to becuse i had to rebuff my self

  5. By Calabar, on 02 April 2008:

    Mr. Pinchy has a wicked sense of humor. I have two 70 characters with high enough fishing to try for him. One finally caught Mr. Pinchy. Three wishes later no pet. My second character finally caught Mr. Pinchy. Three wishes later no pet. My first character caught a second Mr. Pinchy. His second wish gave him his pet. Woot! But then so did his third wish. And of course it’s BoP so he had to let it go since two pets would do him no good. My second character is very jealous. She has yet to catch a second Mr. Pinchy.

Topic: Bug with Mr. Pinchy

  1. By Teisemanden, on 06 April 2008:

    Hey fellow anglers.

    So, i was just doing a little bit of 'fun fishing'. you know: nothing to do, look for some highland mixed school. and dang, i catch Mr. Pinchy. I press the name in the check and it says:

    1 charge.

    and i look in the inventory and it says:

    3 charges...

    has this happend to others? and if so, are blizzard aware?
    damn i was scared that they nerfed Mr. pinchy

  2. By Petre, on 07 April 2008:

    I don't think I understand 'press the name in the check'. Could you be more specific about which frame you were clicking or hovering over to get this 'error'?

  3. By Oberweiss, on 07 April 2008:

    I'm fairly certain that this is a bug. A similar issue exists with mana oils (their tooltip while in the bank will say "1 charge," but when you put it in your bags it will say the actual number of charges).

  4. By Longhunter, on 09 April 2008:

    i won Mr P and waited the CD and got him again soooo now what do i do with extra to bad they are bop or they would sell for a ton on the ah

  5. By Petre, on 10 April 2008:

    Making the BoE would eliminate the need for people to learn to fish to get the pet, and therefore remove it's current 'status symbol' status.
    Regardless, Mr. Pinchy does have some useful abilities, check out the Mr. Pinchy page here on El's for more info on what he can do for you.

Topic: Mr. Pinchy's Wishes

  1. By Deathxtreme, on 15 May 2008:

    I was unable to find a post that collaborated the results of Mr. Pinchy's wishes so I thought I'd start the forum post myself. (There is one post here about what people have gotten from Mr. Pinchy, but it's not useful for getting statistical information about Mr. Pinchy's wishes out of it. There is also a post on Thottbot, but that post is also difficult to read and get statistical information out of) While the possible results of Mr. Pinchy's wishes are well known and documented on this website as well as others, there seems be no information on the statistics (i.e. results) of the 3 wishes. Personally, I'm trying to get the elusive status symbol that is the Magical Crawdad Box (on my alt Bradd) and have yet to see what the chances of getting it is. In the spirit of the Daily Quest Fish Catch Rate, I was hoping people could post the results of Mr. Pinchy's wishes.

    Posts should be formatted in the following format (for clarity's sake):

    Mr. Pinchy #: Wish Result 1, Wish Result 2, Wish Result 3

    If you've caught multiple Mr. Pinchy's, please post the results for each Mr. Pinchy's wishes separately. (If you forgot what all you've gotten, just start with whatever Mr. Pinchy number you're currently on)

    Wish results should be posted as the following:

    Benevolent = Benevolent Mr. Pinchy
    Furious = Furious Mr. Pinchy
    Gift = Mr. Pinchy's Gift (Containing Mana & Healing Potions)
    Pet = Magical Crawdad Box
    Blessing = Mr. Pinchy's Blessing

    On Deathxtreme, my results were:

    Mr. Pinchy 1: Gift, Benevolent, Pet

    I'll post the results of Bradd, my alt, later tonight after I make my third wish...

  2. By Slavaa, on 15 May 2008:

    You may want to have people decide to post the results Before they get the wishes, that way people won't decide "Wow, a magical Crawdad pet! the folks on the forums have gotta see this." then creating a bias sample

  3. By Deathxtreme, on 16 May 2008:

    On Bradd,

    Mr. Pinchy 2: Gift, Blessing, Blessing

  4. By Anadjet, on 18 May 2008:

    On the one Mr. Pinchy that I've ever caught:

    2 Magical Crawdads (yes, I actually had to sell one - to a vendor! QQ!) and the gift box.

  5. By Kalarnis, on 19 May 2008:

    Mr. Pinchy 1: Benevolent , Pet, Blessing
    Mr. Pinchy 2: Pet, Gift, Blessing

Topic: Fishing Lake Ere'Noru without a flying mount?

  1. By Gummo, on 07 June 2008:

    I have seen a few people who have gotten to Lake Ere'Noru without flying (the lake behind Allerian Stronghold) to fish for Furious Crawdad and Mr. Pinchy, but I haven't been able to duplicate this feat (see here, here, here, and here)

    I've found the path from the Arrakoa village to the lake, but I can't get over the last ridge to reach the lake. Some mention needing an epic mount, but I couldn't do it even then. Does anyone have more detailed advice on getting there? It's possible the terrain has been changed in a recent patch to prevent this. I also tried slow fall + rocket boots xtreme but couldn't get there...

  2. By Trokair, on 10 June 2008:

    You don't even need a mount, just a few tricky jumps on foot over the terrain there (unless they've changed the terrain, as you mentioned).

    I'll try it tonight or soon, take a screenshot of the ridge you jump over, and post it up here.

Topic: How engineers can get to Lake Ere'Noru to fish for crawdad/Mr. Pinchy

  1. By Gummo, on 08 August 2008:

    I still can't climb up over the last ridge, so as an engineer I just blast my way over:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV-ULaNw2jc

  2. By chubtohd, on 09 August 2008:

    well done man...well done :)

Topic: Mr. Pinchy fishing route

  1. By smoo, on 12 August 2008:

    Hello there. :)

    I found this site because I am interested in fishing Mr. Pinchy. I read all the information, but sadly I was missing something. Maybe I didnt read carefully enough.

    I checked all three pools (with find fish), and fished all the highland mixed schools. But none of them are respawning, which makes me kinda stuck. :) There is the respawn timer between 30-90 minutes - but is there a way to continuously(? i dont know how to write it exactly) fish pools (with a "downtime" of 5 minutes or sth.), or do I have to wait for 30 minutes sometimes (which would make me go away and do several other tings).

    In short:
    Is a waiting period of 5 minutes for new pools possible, or is it alway sth like 30-90 minutes (presuming(?) that you can fish all pools without disturbance)?

    greets
    smoo

  2. By Petre, on 12 August 2008:

    When no one else is fishing these pools I usually have a down time of about 10 minutes I'd guess. With more people fishing you have more downtime. Pools, unfortunately, don't respawn more quickly as they are fished up more quickly. I'll usually clear all the pools, make a quick pass through terokkar to fish the more valuable pools there and then start over again.

  3. By el, on 13 August 2008:

    It's possible the timing of spawns has changed, or there is an unknown aspect, such as faster respawning on high-population realms. There have been some subtle changes made to Highland Mixed Schools over the last 18 months, including an increase in the average number of catches per pool, and a reduction in skill required to fish there. So a subtle timing change is possible - and very hard to confirm on busy live realms!

Topic: Confirmed minimum fishing skill for Mr. Pinchy?

  1. By smoo, on 13 August 2008:

    Hello there!

    I wonder if there is a confirmed minimum fishing skill for Mr. Pinchy? Not the fishing skill to fish the school but for Mr. Pinchy himself. I only have 375+20pole+75lure, without the hat, boots, gloves, or enchant on the pole. Have been fishing for about 20 hours now, and was just wondering. Anyone got some infos?

    greetings,
    smoo

  2. By el, on 13 August 2008:

    Skill doesn't influence what fish you catch, only where you can fish. Mr. Pinchy does not require any fishing skill to use.

    At 470 effective skill about a third of your catches will get away - you're aiming for 500 to stop get-aways: You'd save yourself some time by using +100 lures, rather than +75.

    I feel your pain: My first pair of Pinchies took over 1,000 catches. But I've also had 2 out of the same pool. I'm afraid it's down to luck...

Topic: Caught Mr. Pinchy at level 62

  1. By Gummo, on 16 August 2008:

    ...and got the pet on the first wish, too.

    http://www.westley.org/noorpinchy.png

  2. By chubtohd, on 16 August 2008:

    /sigh i hate you :)

    gratz man...my 7th Mr Pinchy came and went without a pet this past week...you lucky punk :)

    thanks for the screenshot!

  3. By el, on 16 August 2008:

    After catching over 30 Strange Engine Parts, I think little Noor deserves a reward, and a Magical Crawdad is just perfect. Congratulations!

Topic: Undocumented Furious Mr. Pinchy change?

  1. By Gummo, on 23 August 2008:

    Helgie in this thread got a Furious Mr. Pinchy (unless she was talking about Benevolent Mr. Pinchy) that was level 62, the same level as her toon; my 62 rogue got a Furious today, and got a 70 Furious Mr. Pinchy.

    Image here; a nice horde killed him for me.

  2. By el, on 23 August 2008:

    Interesting. I thought that Furious Mr. Pinchy matching your character's level made a lot of sense, since you (well, obviously not you) would have a chance of dealing with it.

Comments are posted on the Fishing Forum. To comment you can reply to one of the topics above, or start a new topic: Simply use the page's name as the topic title, or tag the topic with the name. To edit a commment, view the original forum thread and make changes there.