I will put more detail later on, but as of now, I recommend it, give it about 7/10.

There are some areas to improve (quite a lot, actually), which I don't know if they ever will, but some nice spots too.

The game MAY NOT be Pay To Win! (Maybe, read below) It is pay to skip! And quite frankly, you can power level into lv 20 in about 10 hours or even less, which will give you access to some cool stuff. The feel is quite ok, you gotta increase or lower reel brake by pressing + or - to not break the line/leader, you gotta strike to hook the fish, the controler vibrates if you use one, the feeling is pretty decent! (Your first setup ever cannot use brake at max lv with the line you get so you start at half brake and can only increase like, 1 point). You can forward time by pressing T (a very useful feature), but if you do so, you gotta wait a cooldown period.

The Baitcoin(cash) can be earned via competitions, level up or missions, so you can get some stuff from there too, usually before unlocking the level for the in-game earned money ('dollars') but it is not that hard to make money, if you know what you are doing. Those who say the game is p2w clearly have made no plan ahead.

(The main plan is to usually set up at least a Rod Case to have at least 2 rods with you, get around 2 rods with 3kg drag force, get the 3.6kg line from the first are mission by catching all possible fish, get at least one Rod Stand to leave it with bait while you are fishing lure with the other, and go farm with a Narrow Spoon and Small Minnows at Emerald Lake, which is unlocked at lv 8, you can do this until lv 20+ easily in about 10hrs of gameplay. In fact you can strill grind relatively fast until lv 30 or more, it is repetitive, but then you can do missions and have a little more fun, then go back to Emerald to farm some more if needed. You need an investiment of around 5.5k in bait, travel and license, each fish around 200 per catch, within less than an hour you usually already have that money back! You can also forward time forever from 9pm to 9pm of the other day without waiting for cooldowns, because if you do forward at any other time beside 9-5am, you gotta wait a while)
However it is extremely advised to check the game Tutorials section near Options and check some Guides, as it is quite easy to waste money on gears and specially trips to access the fishing areas. Always travel with a plan in mind!!

I DON'T RECOMMEND TRYING COMPETITIONS because I was watching a guy stream getting 1 fish every cast, I was aiming at the same spot with a very similar gear, and getting 0 bites! I'm starting to think that this game rigs bite rate up for premium players.... a very shady and greedy thing to do if done indeed! Outside of comp doing my missions, lots of bites, inside comp, at peak time, best time to get fish, zero bites. ZERO!
BUT you can create your own competitions too, so if you have some friends to play, then you can have a little fun while fishing with a now empty basket to possibly even make more money in the process! (You gotta buy for gear, boxes with more hook slots, bigger basket, etc, each getting better the more you lv up, and you know, it makes sense. If you never fished, even if you had money, would you, untrained, try to go for a big fish? You could even hurt yourself! You gotta start slow, so it makes a little sense, but it is kinda grindy, but at least for half of current max lv, not that much)

The gameplay and sound effects are OK, and the menu has only like 2 looping country music, ever. Very disappointing. At least the background noise is relaxing, as expected from fishing in the nature.

Anyways, this game got me 'hooked' (pun intended) because I was a little tired from MOBAS, Shooters, Hacky Slashy stuff, and I got amused at how entertained I got while... fishing. You can easily get distracted and see hours and hours passing and not even do much, it's mostly fishing, and somehow it's not that boring! Plus no need to worry about mosquitoes, sunburn, gasoline...

It's free and you should give it a try if you think you'd like to play a fishing game, but the comps might frustrate you. The custom ones are usually a little better if you set them yourself and with friends.

I will put more detail later on, but as of now, I recommend it, give it about 7/10. There are some areas to improve (quite a lot, actually), which I don't know if they ever will, but some nice spots too. The game MAY NOT be Pay To Win! (Maybe, read below) It is pay to skip! And quite frankly, you can power level into lv 20 in about 10 hours or even less, which will give you access to some cool stuff. The feel is quite ok, you gotta increase or lower reel brake by pressing + or - to not break the line/leader, you gotta strike to hook the fish, the controler vibrates if you use one, the feeling is pretty decent! (Your first setup ever cannot use brake at max lv with the line you get so you start at half brake and can only increase like, 1 point). You can forward time by pressing T (a very useful feature), but if you do so, you gotta wait a cooldown period. The Baitcoin(cash) can be earned via competitions, level up or missions, so you can get some stuff from there too, usually before unlocking the level for the in-game earned money ('dollars') but it is not that hard to make money, if you know what you are doing. Those who say the game is p2w clearly have made no plan ahead. (The main plan is to usually set up at least a Rod Case to have at least 2 rods with you, get around 2 rods with 3kg drag force, get the 3.6kg line from the first are mission by catching all possible fish, get at least one Rod Stand to leave it with bait while you are fishing lure with the other, and go farm with a Narrow Spoon and Small Minnows at Emerald Lake, which is unlocked at lv 8, you can do this until lv 20+ easily in about 10hrs of gameplay. In fact you can strill grind relatively fast until lv 30 or more, it is repetitive, but then you can do missions and have a little more fun, then go back to Emerald to farm some more if needed. You need an investiment of around 5.5k in bait, travel and license, each fish around 200 per catch, within less than an hour you usually already have that money back! You can also forward time forever from 9pm to 9pm of the other day without waiting for cooldowns, because if you do forward at any other time beside 9-5am, you gotta wait a while) However it is extremely advised to check the game Tutorials section near Options and check some Guides, as it is quite easy to waste money on gears and specially trips to access the fishing areas. Always travel with a plan in mind!! I DON'T RECOMMEND TRYING COMPETITIONS because I was watching a guy stream getting 1 fish every cast, I was aiming at the same spot with a very similar gear, and getting 0 bites! I'm starting to think that this game rigs bite rate up for premium players.... a very shady and greedy thing to do if done indeed! Outside of comp doing my missions, lots of bites, inside comp, at peak time, best time to get fish, zero bites. ZERO! BUT you can create your own competitions too, so if you have some friends to play, then you can have a little fun while fishing with a now empty basket to possibly even make more money in the process! (You gotta buy for gear, boxes with more hook slots, bigger basket, etc, each getting better the more you lv up, and you know, it makes sense. If you never fished, even if you had money, would you, untrained, try to go for a big fish? You could even hurt yourself! You gotta start slow, so it makes a little sense, but it is kinda grindy, but at least for half of current max lv, not that much) The gameplay and sound effects are OK, and the menu has only like 2 looping country music, ever. Very disappointing. At least the background noise is relaxing, as expected from fishing in the nature. Anyways, this game got me 'hooked' (pun intended) because I was a little tired from MOBAS, Shooters, Hacky Slashy stuff, and I got amused at how entertained I got while... fishing. You can easily get distracted and see hours and hours passing and not even do much, it's mostly fishing, and somehow it's not that boring! Plus no need to worry about mosquitoes, sunburn, gasoline... It's free and you should give it a try if you think you'd like to play a fishing game, but the comps might frustrate you. The custom ones are usually a little better if you set them yourself and with friends.