Currently, the Fishing profession is punishing to players who have worked hard to level up their profession.

Uncommon Fish only found in Peaceful Pond - it makes the achievement an annoying grind for everyone who has gotten past Level 12 since we worked hard to level up and then get sent back to get half the amount of fish per fishing trip. There should be an uncommon fish in every area. (This should be an extremely easy thing to fix! 3 new types of fish with 2 variations each)

Open Ocean - there is pretty much no fishing items that could be individually cooked which drastically limits our cooking capabilities - octopi, shrimp, mussels and lobsters should all be able to be cooked individually like normal fish items (tbh the guppies from the Backwoods Brook should be too) (This should also be an easy fix - Level 50 was a grind to get there and many of us regret pushing so hard due to the lack of cookable items)

I think I made a suggestion regarding similar issues a while back, to help balance the profession.. My thoughts:

- Rarity of fish should increase through the levels: I think it is very logical to have fish become more rare as you level up, instead of having the rarest fish only show up in the first level. I don't mind each area having more and less common items in their pool, but it makes no sense that the rarest food items are found in the lowest level

- Ripples should increase with player level not area level: It makes absolutely no sense that someone who is level 70 in fishing still only gets 10 ripples when they fish in the first area. I think each area should give the same amount of ripples, (so that you aren't punished as a player when you go back to an earlier area) and that the amount should be dependent on your level as a player. Perhaps an extra ripple every 5 levels or so, where 10 is the minimum base everyone has at lv1.

- Choose where koda fishes; As Kidkeeper said, being able to tell Koda where to fish so you have som agency on the type of fish she catches would be stellar. If not, at least including fish from every area would be better than it is now.

- All areas should have directly cookable fish (simple recipes): 100% agree that the open ocean should have simple recipe fish ingredients. Ideally the fish currently there get their own simple recipe.

So in short, support with the OP plus some additions! :)

I think I made a suggestion regarding similar issues a while back, to help balance the profession.. My thoughts:

- Rarity of fish should increase through the levels: I think it is very logical to have fish become more rare as you level up, instead of having the rarest fish only show up in the first level. I don't mind each area having more and less common items in their pool, but it makes no sense that the rarest food items are found in the lowest level

- Ripples should increase with player level not area level: It makes absolutely no sense that someone who is level 70 in fishing still only gets 10 ripples when they fish in the first area. I think each area should give the same amount of ripples, (so that you aren't punished as a player when you go back to an earlier area) and that the amount should be dependent on your level as a player. Perhaps an extra ripple every 5 levels or so, where 10 is the minimum base everyone has at lv1.

- Choose where koda fishes; As Kidkeeper said, being able to tell Koda where to fish so you have som agency on the type of fish she catches would be stellar. If not, at least including fish from every area would be better than it is now.

- All areas should have directly cookable fish (simple recipes): 100% agree that the open ocean should have simple recipe fish ingredients. Ideally the fish currently there get their own simple recipe.

So in short, support with the OP plus some additions! :)

I like all of those as well! (Based on the suggestions guidelines I tried to simplify this post to 1 idea (balance the fish) vs a bunch of ideas :)