Let's share our first (spoiler free!) impressions!

[Elly]

My struggle was getting them hooked in the first place. I can get the red bar to appear (ie they are alert) but it disappears after a few seconds.

the red bar is their interest, some fish like fast moving bait, others like it to not move at all, while others like slow moving bait, the faster the bar fills the more their interested... jig it around a bit too see which fills the bar faster and recast (Circle Button) to the same spot using what you learned from observing the red bar... also try changing the Lure, different fish like different bait, you can check each Lures description to find out which bait are for which fish...

I am 100% done and have already played through the game 2 1/2 times so no, not skipped. 100% as long as we do not have the DLC for story and all, that is.

lol, i should have expected that from you though, you remind me of this guy i knew with eidetic memory that would play through games in under a weekend, he'd buy/rent them and be done by time i'd come back over the next day, it always amazed me...

Indeed I did! I love these games for their stories. So the fact that 90% of the game is something other than story content is a) why I finished it so quickly and b) why I don't like it very much.

but there is still story in those side-quests, the one with Dave and the Dog Tags is a really good example of one that further develops the boys character...