The Skyrim Anniversary Edition is supposed to be a love letter to the fans and content creators who stood by the game for over 10 years. Bethesda has been talking a lot about the additional content that has been included in this edition, with its pillars being the Creation Club content, the survival mode, all new quests, and of course, fishing.
Before the Anniversary Edition, players had no other choice but to wade into the water and catch fish with their bare hands, like real Dragonborns; the latest edition of the game introduces the fishing feature with its own set of mechanics. It turns out that fishing is very important to some players. It has been scrutinized, but there doesn't seem to be a common consensus on it.
Our very own Andy Kelly couldn't get enough of fishing. "It's a refreshingly peaceful, laid back way to engage with Skyrim's beautiful, atmospheric world," he wrote in his feature. "It forces you to stop and absorb your surroundings in a way the regular game never really does. It's just you, a fishing rod, the lapping of the water, and the distant howl of the freezing wind. I also appreciate how the fishing points have all been placed in particularly scenic areas of the map, which means you're always treated to a nice view as you fish."
However, not everybody shares Andy's enthusiasm for the feature. Reddit user Lyons_Pride95 wrote a rather long post about how "terrible" the feature is, especially since it was touted as one of the "big four" features to come along with the Anniversary Edition. "You can't fish anywhere you'd like, only at predetermined points," they wrote. "The main reason for fishing would be to have a food source in the wild you can utilize during Survival Mode. Not being able to do it in any river/lake defeats the entire purpose."
They also went on to talk about how bland the mechanics were by stressing on the lack of a minigame and the fact that you couldn't move the camera. They further went on to write an even bigger post about how broken the fishing related quests are. Be warned though, they do get into details about the quests, so you could consider them spoilers.
Strangely, Lyons_Pride95 and Andy spoke about the same points, but with opposite reactions to them. Even the Reddit thread is filled with replies that seem divided on whether the fishing is actually good.