Golden Darter - El's Extreme Anglin'

This page summarises how to catch Golden Darter.

About Golden Darter

Usage: Cooking: Golden Fish Sticks (restores 7500 health over 30 sec, increase healing done by 44 and Spirit by 20 for 30 min, requires Level 55).

Vendor Value: 8c.

Auction Value: Golden Fish Sticks sell for about 1g 25s each.

Catching Golden Darter

Detailed mapping of hard to find areas is shown below.

Notes: School of Darter are only found in parts of Terokkar Forest accessible without a flying mount. All areas with Highland Mixed Schools require a flying mount or (Druid) flight ability to reach. There are no pools in Silmyr Lake.

Commentary: Until patch 2.4 there was no efficient way to catch Golden Darter: School of Darter were hard to find, Highland Mixed Schools were even harder to find, and open water only gave about 22% Darter. Now all the pools in low-lying parts of Terokkar Forest contain Golden Darter (about 80% of School of Darter and 50% of Brackish Mixed Schools). There are only 17 or 18 possible spawning points, which take about an hour to reappear, so you may not be able to fish these pools continually. Pools in Zangarmarsh may be Brackish, Sporefish, or Steam Pump Flotsam. Due to the way pools appear, you may have to fish all 3 pool types to sustain Darter fishing, however there are many more pool spawning points in Zangarmarsh, so pool fishing can be easily sustained. Parts of Zangarmarsh also have slightly lower fishing skill requirements (305 compared to 355), so are easier to fish by those still learning. Read more detailed analysis of why pool fishing is quicker.

History: 2.4: Found in new Brackish Mixed Schools.

Where to catch Golden Darter
Water/pool type	Minimum skill		Areas	Catch Rate		Commonly caught fish
Water/pool type	To cast	To avoid get aways	Areas	% of Catch	Source	Commonly caught fish
Brackish Mixed School - Inland	305	400	Zangarmarsh (except Marshlight Lake, Sporewind Lake, and Serpent Lake)	50%	Sample: 145.	Golden Darter Spotted Feltail
Brackish Mixed School - Inland	355	450	Terokkar Forest (except lakes Blackwind, Ere'Noru, Jorune and Silmyr) Zangarmarsh (Marshlight Lake, Sporewind Lake, and Serpent Lake only)	50%	Sample: 145.	Golden Darter Spotted Feltail
Highland Mixed School - Inland	405	500	Terokkar Forest (Lakes) - Blackwind Lake, Lake Ere'Noru and Lake Jorune only	17%	Sample: 1060.	Furious Crawdad Golden Darter
Open Water - Inland	355	450	Terokkar Forest (except lakes Blackwind, Ere'Noru, Jorune and Silmyr)	22%	Sample: 381.	Barbed Gill Trout Golden Darter Spotted Feltail
Open Water - Inland	405	500	Terokkar Forest (Lakes)	22%	Sample: 381.	Barbed Gill Trout Golden Darter Spotted Feltail
School of Darter - Inland	355	450	Terokkar Forest (except lakes Blackwind, Ere'Noru, Jorune and Silmyr)	80%	Sample: 105.	Golden Darter

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

Detailed Mapping

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

Map: Zangarmarsh's lakes - The Lagoon, Marshlight Lake, Sporewind Lake, Serpent Lake, and Umbrafen Lake.

Other Tomes

Learn More

Valuable Fish - This chapter will help you catch fish of value.
Pools and Wreckage - This chapter will help you fish among schools and floating debris.
The Burning Crusade - Fishing changes in the first expansion.
The Role of Skill - This topic considers the role skill plays in fishing, including how skill changes the proportion of fish that "get away".
Zone Base Fishing Skill - This topic attempts to answer the question, what fishing skill will I need to fish in a certain zone?
Gazetteer - This topic develops a simple gazetteer that shows which fish may be caught in which zones.
2.4 Changes - Patch 2.4's changes to fishing.