It's definitely way more interesting and profitable than WoW's fishing, although I have yet to try it myself (fishing wasn't out in Russian AA while I was still playing). Basically you can fish anywhere, but if you want the big ones you'll have to find a fishing node (seagulls flying over water). Fishing process itself is a minigame. Once you catch a big fish, it doesn't just pop in your inventory, but rather it pops on your back as a trade pack. This is where the fishing boat comes handy, which has a water tank that can store the smaller fish and two hooks in the back where you can hang the big fish. You then transport these fishes to the fishing vendor and he gives you gold depending on the weight of the fish (the bigger the more gold, and you can get a lot of gold for some fish).
Fishing boat:
For a complete guide in text:
Figured i come here and talk about fishing for a little bit. The fishing! system in this game is on a completely new level of awesomeness compared to other games. I usually find fishing extremely boring, but in this game i couldn't get enough of it. Not only was it fun and enjoyable, but it also was a very profitable way to make money.
First off you need to go fishing for small fish, to make a bucket of bait. Once you've made the bucket bait with COOKING. You can set sail to the ocean, once out in open waters you will at some point come across seagulls flying around. That means there's a school of big fish in the area. Depending on which type of school it is, you have to use a certain bait to attract them. Once you throw the bucket of bait into the water where the school of fish are. They will start to show up swimming in the water. Big fish that you can see and grab.
Not like your normal fishing mmo, where they magically show up in you inventory and you never see them. Once they hook on to your rod, you go through a minigame, where you have to fight the fish to keep it hooked. The heavier/bigger the fish, the harder the game will be to catch it. Once you eventually beat it, it loses it's health and you have to jump into the water assuming hes died in the water. Grab it and put on your back and carry it back to the boat.
Now the cool thing is, if you have a normal sail boat.. or galleon or any ship of that matter that isn't a Fishing boat. You won't be able to carry many big fish, unless you have more people with you. However if you have the fishing boat, it has a water tank in the middle where you can drop all the fish you catch till it fills up and you can't put anymore. The fishing boat is really cool compared to other ships. Not only does it have two extra hooks in the back, where only the biggest of fishes have to be put on to. It also has a Radar, unlike the Galleon and The Trade ship radar, the fishing boat radar tracks schools of fish. So you won' t be sailing away random trying to find schools of fish. Once on the radar it shows location of the school of fishes, you make it and head there and bam, fishing time!
After you're done fishing and you have all your fish into the tank / your back. You can bring them to a dock where you will see vendors who have a balance beam next to them. You weigh the fish, depending the how big it is it will give you gold. The heavier the more gold you get. It's really fun and unique thing to see people docking into the docks and unloading fish from there boat. It feels like a real working world, people actually working to make money doing things you would expect in the real world.
I could go on for hours about how much time i spent doing fishing and how rewarding and fun it is. But i will leave it to you guys to find out.
In video: