What I did was practice the different moves from the book. You're fingers get accustomed to the different button sequences if you practice them first before doing the fish hunt sidequest.

If you're gonna just rely on you're reflexes without practicing, then good luck.

Upstream and midstream are easy so you don't have to practice those. Before you go upstream, practice the button sequences from the book. You'll be amazed at how easy it is! You don't even have to look at the screen anymore, once you see the sequence, you're fingers know where to go.