I wonder why everyone finds fishing so frustrating?
Probably because some fish are insane to catch.
Fishing is my worst skill, but it is expected that even with the second rod and low skill, you're still gonna have a hard time on some fishes. I believe higher skill means faster and more stable fishing.
IIRC, on old Harvest Moon it all depended on your rod, right?
What annoys me sometimes is when a default fish for the place fights as if it were a shark. You get excited and then you get..a bream.
I'm loving the game too, but I do think that the slow movement speed and no save on quit makes it terrible for people who have kids/are married/have full-time jobs. I'm currently not in any of those, though.
I'm gonna have no mods for the first play through, but next time I'll definitely grab some movement tweaks. I wish some unlockable/buyable/reward boots gave movement bonus. Maybe they exist, but it shouldn't take long to get'em..
Just like in HM, there's the horse. But I'm on 1st of Fall and still don't have enough resources to get it.
However, as some people might suspect after exploring, there is a thing that can help with movement:
Minecarts. It helps a lot, doesn't take long to unlock, but running speed still feels slow. They enable 3 fast travel locations.
Edit: Don't ninja me when I'm using the forum on the phone, people. That's hardcore mode to edit things.