In my opinion, fishing is broken.

You can only acquire the bait (and fishing rod) from the trader, and then it requires skilling up to be able to catch fish... so you're effectively grinding so you can pay for the privilege of grinding some more.

To add insult to injury, the reward for maxing out fishing (while catching one of each type of fish) is a hat that adds +20... to your already maxed-out fishing skill.