I'm just going to put this put there and I'm not going to sugar coat it:

Fishing in AC: Valhalla sucks

So much so that I am tempted to ignore EVERYTHING fishing related because it is so bad.

List of Observed Incredulities

1. Why am I fishing with a rope?
2. WHY AM I FISHING WITH A ROPE?
3. I'm currently standing on a small pier, just across the river from Wayfarer's Wharf, just south-east from Ravensthorpe and the NPC assholes HERE are fishing with a FISHING POLE. HELLO WHAT?
4. What is tied on the end of this rope? Meat? Vegetables? Nothing?
5. Why is there no other bait to use?
6. Why does the rope have the tensile strength of string? If I'm fishing with 50ft of hempen rope I should have NO problems pulling in a 30lb catfish. Unfortunately I have to fight for 10 minutes BUTTON MASHING.
7. Why am I mashing buttons on the keyboard? This is the most inefficient way to control anything. Even the on-screen directions tell me to MASH the spacebar while I am to use W, A, S, D to control the direction. This is the worst ever and MASHING the spacebar for 5-10 minutes to pull in a fish with ROPE is dumb.
8. The fish, ANY OF THEM, fight with the strength of a whale. They swim back and forth and fight against me pulling on a HEMPEN ROPE with unchecked strength. Eivor can take down the heartiest opponents on land but can't pull from the water a small eel without it being the fight of his life. [censored]?
9. Who designed the fishing mechanics? Don't give me his or her name. Just walk into their office or cubicle and punch them in the nose for me for designing a horrible system. Tell them it was from a disgruntled player. Then kick them in the shin for good measure.

Lastly:

WHY AM I FISHING WITH A DAMN ROPE?

@siliconhobbit I think the game doesn't tell it to the player but we are supposed to press direction that is the opposite of the direction the fish took. That's how it worked in Far Cry 5 and we all know that Ubisoft teams borrow ideas from one another. So if fish goes right, you press left and mash spacebar. The most it took for me for bigger fish was about 20 seconds. Not 5-10 minutes. Maybe I was lucky.

yes. Idea is to tire the fish out which means opposite direction so they work against you.

@detroitin2019 It took me, literally, hours, to figure this out. I was doing the mandatory fishing with Coelbert to advance the story and was sitting at my desk screaming at the computer, banging my desktop. Nothing I was doing with the keyboard seemed to correlate in any way with what was happening on the screen. Finally, I had my brother try. he managed to land the required three fish in maybe, 5-6 minutes. I asked him, "What did you do, exactly? What was the technique to reel them in?" He responded, "I don't know, I was just mashing random buttons. There didn't seem to be any logic to it at all. I just got lucky."

Just by chance, after hooking and losing numerous fish, I noticed it seemed to go better if I used opposite direction. Still, [censored] does "Mash" mean? Am I supposed to hold down the space bar, or does mash mean to fast-tap it? Again, nothing I seem to click on the keyboard seems to correspond to anything happening on-screen.

And then I watched some videos of people on console who are reeling them in within seconds of hooking them. I mean, two-three seconds they are holding the fish!

Crappy implementation, lack of adequate explanation of the controls, just horrible all around. Glad I'm not the only one!

@wineward64 Yeah fishing with rope sucks big time so whenever you can avoid it, just use arrows or if water is shallow spear(that one works wonders as long as the water is shallow enough to stand in it)

Fishing in every game is bad and useless, but Valhalla set a new record. Such a boring and broken activity.

Try collecting the 10 small bullhead for the side mission =.= Can spend a full day fishing and barely get half that. You do know the fish stop respawning once the sun goes down and you must wait til sun up to continue??

@siliconhobbit Ya, spear or arrow fishing so much faster. May have to fish the standard way to catch some of the more unique fish.

@siliconhobbit

so yeah.... I just keep mashing X on my PS4 controller, not pushing on the directions at all. (PC player)

As someone who has collected every type of fish in the game with relative ease and has the trophy for it I can tell you that all advice given in this thread is wrong. You don't pull in the oposite direction to the fish as that just creates tension.
Likwise pulling in the same direction doesn't work either (which makes no sense).
All you have to do is wait for the fish to turn momentarily towards you and at that brief moment it's vulnerable so you can reel it in. Repeat the process.

It took me a while to figure it out as the game literally never explains this. The fishes also despawn as well. It's completely broken much like most of the game. How do you ruin fishing? It's inherently relaxing. Far Cry 5 got it right at least.

@animuslover Hey, do you have to catch all sizes within a specie too or just the different fish types to unlock this trophy?
I'm working my way towards it so just curious

@balla_jazzuz Nah, just different types. Size does not matter.

Fishing in the sea is broken af.

Fishes swimming side ways. Going under/over your boat. Your character not even turning on him/herself to face the fish in the other direction. Fish swimming away and away and away and away and away if it goes under (over? it's hard to tell since it is so broken) your boat.

Honestly, my biggest problem with the fishing is how ABSOLUTELY FOREVER it takes for any but the small ones to bite. I mean, staring at the screen for WAY too long just waiting with controller in hand (or fingers on keyboard)? That counts as gameplay now?

@siliconhobbit it's called "handline" fishing and I don't know what to tell ya as far as why, it's more hardcore? I too was wondering why the NPCs all have poles though.

@siliconhobbit I agree I'm sitting here for [censored] 15 minutes fighting with a fish that I can't just [censored] real in and no matter what I do it stays in the same damn spot whoever designed the fishing mechanics should have their hand slammed in the car door so they can't program anything for months on it cuz clearly they're an idiot