Golden Darter - El's Extreme Anglin'

This page summarises how to catch Golden Darter.

About Golden Darter

Value (uncooked): Vendor: 8c
Cooking:
- Golden Fish Sticks
Cooking:
- Golden Fish Sticks:
  - Requires level 55 to eat. Restores 7500 health over 30 seconds.
  - Buff: 23 Spell Power, 20 Spirit, for 30 minutes.
  - Recipe: Recipe: Golden Fish Sticks. Sold by Innkeeper Biribi (Alliance) or Rungor (Horde), in Terokkar Forest. Requires Cooking 325.
  - Ingredients: Golden Darter.

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 School 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 School 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 School). 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 (see Pool Spawning), 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 School.

Where to catch Golden Darter
Water	No-junk skill	Areas	Catch Rate *		Commonly caught fish
Water	No-junk skill	Areas	% of Catch	Source	Commonly caught fish
Brackish Mixed School - Inland	400	Zangarmarsh (except Marshlight Lake, Sporewind Lake, and Serpent Lake)	50%	Sample: 145.	Golden Darter Spotted Feltail
Brackish Mixed School - Inland	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	500	Terokkar Forest (Lakes) - Blackwind Lake, Lake Ere'Noru and Lake Jorune only	17%	Sample: 1060.	Furious Crawdad Golden Darter
Open Water - Inland	450	Terokkar Forest (except lakes Blackwind, Ere'Noru, Jorune and Silmyr)	22%	Sample: 381.	Barbed Gill Trout Golden Darter Spotted Feltail
Open Water - Inland	500	Terokkar Forest (Lakes)	22%	Sample: 381.	Barbed Gill Trout Golden Darter Spotted Feltail
School of Darter - Inland	450	Terokkar Forest (except lakes Blackwind, Ere'Noru, Jorune and Silmyr)	80%	Sample: 105.	Golden Darter

[*] % of Catch is the approximate proportion of all catches in this area/water, 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 - Details the most valuable fish, and how to catch them.
Pools and Wreckage - Describes how to fish pools such as schools or floating debris, where to find pools, and how to efficiently fish them.
The Burning Crusade - Fishing changes in the first expansion.
The Role of Skill (Revised) - Considers the role skill plays in fishing, including how skill changes the proportion of junk items caught. Revised for patch 3.1.
Zone Base Fishing Skill - Detailed analysis that 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, including daily quests and Isle of Quel'Danas.