there are designs to get fish without the fishing rod.

but yea, i agree. once you're out of the black forest and get your hands on sausages and turnips fish is pretty much obsolete other than maybe a alternative way to obtain charcoal. but even then i much rather hoard all my coins for a fancy vault filled with piles of riches. so unless i passively obtain beached fish somewhere there is no reason to bother with it either.

i have a row of more than 10 racks and intentionally burn neck tails for some quick extra charcoal. they find some use for minced sauce but I'm not using too much of it either so just turn the majority of the tails into charcoal. you'll need again and again as fuel throughout the game.