Inside ZG you’ll find the location shown above on a little outcropping along the SE side of the river. There is a “Battered Tackle Box” there. If you open the chest a quest window will open. The quest text is very simple, and straightforward. Basically the quest says to take the Measuring Tape and give it back to Nat Pagle. Well, off to Dustwallow to turn in the quest and see what the Great Nat Pagle has to say about his lost tape!

Catching the mudskunks is the best part of about this quest. The reason is that only a true fisherman can even cast inside ZG! The minimum fishing skill required to cast in ZG is the highest (equal with the Bay of Storms) in pre-BC content, at a required 330 fishing skill. In order to cast and catch every possible mudskunk you will need a skill level of 420 or higher (greater than the current fishing skill cap!). Obviously, back in the day this necessitated the use of a good lure (Aquadynamic Fish attractors went up in price as more and more people raided ZG on my server, though not by much), or the fishing gear from the Sunday Tourney, which I had of course. The pools of mudskunks are aptly named “Muddy Churning Waters” and appear exactly like any other non-descript fishing pool in the game. There are several packs of Crocolisks along the river that usually guard a pool, so it will be necessary for a group to clear them before you will be able to cast. Also, there are some really annoying Frenzies that will attempt to attack you, and evade bug since they supposedly can’t leave the water, though they often will. Annoying buggers, you’ll need to kill them too or they’ll keep you in combat indefinitely, making it impossible for you to cast. Once your lure is inside the pool however be quick to hit that bobber because the high skill requirement will necessitate better reaction times than simply casting anywhere else in the world. After doing this part of the instance for my guild for several weeks I was pretty much garaunteed a slot in the raid since it was so much fun for me, and not so much for everyone else. I got some enchants out of it too, which was nice! It will probably take you 2-3 pools in order to catch a sufficient number (5) of Mudskunks to set your lure. This is normally no problem, though usually only 4 pools will spawn in a set number of locations, so it’s possible that you may not get the fifth Mudskunk until you reach the temple in the center where you fight Hakkar. Once you have the five Mudskunks you need take yourself and your raid back to Pagle’s landing. Here you will summon Gahz’ranka.

Once you’re standing at Pagle’s Point, enjoy some free alcohol from the bottles around the area to prepare yourself, then turn north and throw (right-click in your inventory) the lure into the water. The lure and the five Mudskunks will be consumed and you’ll see a rather large barrel (the lure) floating in the water. After floating for a few seconds a large Hydra will rise out of the water in the location of the lure and immediately aggro the person closest to him. He’s not hard, best have two tanks fighting for aggro though. Also, fight him in the deep water just south of Pagle’s landing, he does a great knockback that launches you very high in the air, if your raid lands in the deep water no one will die from falling damage. It’s a fun fight, enjoy the view while flying high in the air! The best part though is that he drops some rare, and great loot! He drops a caster trinket (Nat Pagle’s Broken Reel), Tome of Polymorph: Turtle (a must for every mage), the piece I am still  vying for Nat Pagle’s Fish Terminator (Fishin’s for sissies), the great rogue piece Foror’s Eyepatch. He also will consistently drop green items which I always found annoying considering the fishing skill required, an attunement quest, and a bossfight, but Blizzard seems to think this fight is too easy to give better loot, oh well.