You ever seen a halibut in real life? Now that's a big fish.

No, it's rather normal. The fishing mechanic is garbage, still among the worst I've ever seen in a game, don't waste your time. If you want fish, float a couple rafts near a school and pick up the fish that jump it. Fish farms are easy to build.

yes and no. Its partly a bug, I think, in the sheer number of them and the floating ones out above the water surface. This seems to be related to the new fishing updates and likely will get cleaned up someday.

but fish have always jumped and washed ashore to be picked up and you have always been able to modify the terrain to make this more likely and farm up some without a rod. That seems intentional, at a lesser degree. And I think the new fish sizes has something to do with all this -- they are so big now they get landed easier cause water not deep enough. They used to be at the biggest about the size of your foot or maybe your leg. Now, we have THIS:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2930140238
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2911112831

I am grabbing as many grounded puffers as I can for afk farms.