Some grade A kodo mess I tell you what.
Leveled my fishing last night from 20-300. Found out about a fishing tournament held every Saturday. I thought, oh yeah… I’m ready. I put my fishing hat on and got to work.
I catch two of the three fish, get dc’d randomly and can no longer participate. Worst part is the quest is still in my log so I went ahead and tracked down the 3rd fish but nothing happened. Now I gotta wait a whole nother week before I can try it again. Ridiculous
You need the buff to catch the fish. You can also do this with any warband toon.
Yeah quite annoying. I had 50 minutes left on my buff and was doing it. Got DC’d and logged back in a minute later and the buff is gone. Can’t get it again. Sucks cause I was quite excited for it and this just put a damper on the entire thing.
I feel like this has to be a bug or un-intended “feature”. The Buff timer should count down in real time regardless of if you are logged in or not. That way if you get DCed you can get back on and finish the quest.
For anyone who is curious there is a Saturday Fishing Derby in Hallowfall. It is not a competition like the one in Vanilla. It rewards currency you use at the quest giver for recipes, pets, cosmetics, etc.
Limitations:
To add to this, yes, Fish More! I did this last week in EA, little did I know at the time that there is an achievement that rewards a mount … I got all but 4 of the fish last Saturday. Snagged the last 4 this morning for my mount.
I did not know that part! I think I was 3 or 4 short and was not really trying hard. I am only a bit over 150 fishing so far. I also need to work out how to catch some of the super rare ones. I know wowhead has the info, I just need to go DO it.
Also the recipe for those cursed fish is useful! Get it from the quest vendor if you like fishing. It grants bonus to fishing and perception so you don’t have to keep all the other fish. Just fillet them.
I had opened a ticket and GM confirmed it’s not working as intended and they are looking into it.
Yeah fished for a hour and only got two of the fish. I’m done with this daily. Not wasting my time. 
I got all three of the fish in about 13 minutes… . but I have never won a fishing derby in wow, ever.
You have to fish from the pools which means a lot of flying around and sharing pools with other players participating in the event. Wowhead has a fishing guide detailing the pools where all the new fish are found. Some are obvious but others are not so obvious.
I would check out this guide for before next week’s derby.
Good luck!
on beta you could log out and come back hours later and the buff was still there. I logged out to get a fishing hat from my tailor and I logged back in no buff but I still should have had 16 minutes left - so I turned the quest in, just in case and I got the reward. So it may be just a display issue.
Excellent. Thank you for relaying what the GMs have said. Glad that is already on their radar - means the Devs are aware, and even told CS that they are aware.
It is a Weekly. Saturday only. You need to fish in the fishing pools. There is one that is more common in pools by waterfalls which might be the one you had trouble with. You can go to ANY zone and fish - you don’t have to compete with people in Hallowfall.
Or just go to a different zone 
The buff works in any of them so people can spread out and have a coast mostly to themselves.
At 300 skill, with a 564 fishing rod and a minimally leveled Algari Weaveline, I get mostly fish in open water. I also fished up two of the three Derby fish right next to the quest giver within a few casts (no pools). For the third one I had to find a pool, though. You also get the Derby Marks when fishing in open water, if your skill is high enough.
At 150, I’d definitely only fish in pools, though, like you said.
Interesting! That means it is worth leveling my fishing and getting all the buffs for it. I did get some of the marks, but I got them from the treasure/flotsam type pools.
I need to get my engineer up so she can make me a pole - when she learns it - after I farm scrap to level engineering.
I did the Derby with under 100 fishing.
I did attempt to keep fishing just to see if it was display, but I was not getting quest progress anymore when getting the fish unfortunately.
oh well, hoping they can fix it soon enough
Same here. Completed with 89 fishing level.
Huh, Wowhead comments said otherwise. I did not try it below 150 though so that is good info to have. Thank you!
I’m on the road this weekend and unable to do the derby - but super appreciative of you hardcores working it out & making reports to make it better as time goes on.
Get it. 
This is incorrect. I completed the fishing derby quest today and my fishing isn’t even at 90.