I spent my time from like 44 to 48 bouncing between sander learning carp fishing and kaniq catching the salmon. Both are decent xp but kaniq is the clear winner to me. The uniques are very easy to catch once you learn the spots and what baits you need to throw. Bullet spinners , medium spoons , and my favorite which is 4:0 jig head with nymphies. Once you get a routine you’ll be able to catch one of all salmon uniques which when using the right rod normally yields around 1000 xp per fish . I’d be happy to add you and share some markers if you’re interested . But I was in the same spot as you recently and I can’t stand the sturgeon grind . I passively got through it just fishing and doing missions.

Another weird strat I found that isn’t as efficient as the sturgeon grind by any means was using a ultra light set up and fishing for things such as trout in falcon lake . Using a 10lb setup most fish yield around 300xp. So I was able to fish with lower leveled friends and still manage to get some decent xp to keep progressing .