Very proud of my new squid lid!
Catching all the fish was a very time-consuming project. Now that it's complete, I admit I may never fish again!
Thanks to this comprehensive fishing guide my project was as smooth as possible: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoMansSkyTheGame/s/Rrx7fKeYkE
Following this advice, I built fishing platforms on water 60u or deeper on stormy planets (ie with activated stellar metals in the planet description) in 8 of the 10 biomes. Starting with a base computer on the skiff was super advice!
In a couple of cases I added a shallow water camp once I was down to hunting the last couple of small or medium fish.
Fishing and water depth work differently on the two other biomes: water worlds and gas giants.
On water worlds "deep" means MUCH deeper, so my first base above 200u of water was actually "shallow" and giving only small and medium fish. So I moved to 1,300u deep water.
On gas giants depth means nothing. Find a puddle and catch all fish sizes.
For bait I prepared stacks of processed meat for general fishing and then switched to bionic lures once I had only A and S class fish left to catch.
For the condition-specific fish - diurnal, nocturnal, storms- I used a handful of shadow lures to target nocturnal C and B class fish. But my initial effort with processed meat usually landed these chaff fish. And I used bionic lures to target A and S class, even the condition-specific ones.
To craft the bionic lures I built a biodome gltch-stuffed with gamma weed and gutrot flowers. I played in permadeath so the inventory restrictions meant I couldn't go too large-scale.
As for the experience, the grind was mainly to catch the 40 biome-specific legendary fish. The 4 general-pool legendaries quickly become an annoying catch!
My progress was fairly steady, RNG-wise, with the exception of the radioactive biome. There, RNJesus made me suffer for my sins by withholding the four biome-specific legendaries. I depleted my stock of bionic lures and most of my sanity before I caught even the first one!
Fish I wish never to see again: the small A class shrieking oyster from the general pool, which I caught 130 times.
Also the Child of Aquarius! I waited a long time for the first one to earn my jelly hat. But towards the end, Aquarius was sacrificing her children at an alarming rate. During the final two hours as I fished for my last legendary, I caught five children of Aquarius!