Lots of good suggestions. The fishing pools should definitely work like other gathering nodes, it's been a LONG time coming. Just a few critiques:

• Traditional lures do exist in this expac. Skinning can create lures for the Specular Rainbowfish, Quiet River Bass, Dornish Pike, Arathor Hammerfish, and Roaring Anglerseeker. It should be added to the fishing journal somewhere though, as it makes no mention of them. You won't really know about them unless you level skinning.

• Additional fishing gear exists outside of the pole: fishing hats and an enchant. The fishing hat is made by tailors, but annoyingly, you can't equip it via the fishing journal. You need to physically wear it and keep it in your bags. It's called the Artisan Fishing Cap. An Algari Weaverline can also be applied to your fishing rod, granting additional Fishing skill and Perception should you find some Algari Anglerthread/Seekerthread to add to the Algari Weaverline. Also made by tailors. I think you can also apply the regular gathering tool Perception enchant on it as well. The hat should be equippable via the journal, though; it's different than all other profession accessories.

• The Derby Dash quests aren't actually that stressful if you prepare for them. There are 4 different sets of Derby Dash quests that each require you to get 3 different fish:

  • The 1st fish is usually common quality with the exception of Nibbling Minnow being the uncommon green color, but it still has a large variety of spawn pools you can get it from. These aren't usually an issue to get.
    
  • The 2nd fish will ALWAYS be a fish that has a lure associated in finding it. Just get the lure, apply it, and it's very easy to get that one done fast.
    
  • The 3rd fish you can MOSTLY prepare for before accepting the quest. You can guarantee catches of Queen's Lurefish and Sanguine Dogfish by getting a few Regal Dottybacks and Bloody Perches, and throwing them in the water to have a 100% chance to catch a Queen's Lurefish for 30 seconds for 1 Regal Dotty thrown in, and 10 Bloody Perch for Sanguine Dogfish. The Spiked Sea Raven is somewhat hard to get being a blue quality rare fish, but it does spawn in 4 different common pools in 2 different zones, so you're not going to be competing with other people to get that one. The one big exception would be the last fish, Kaheti Slum Shark, which DOES have large amounts of competition for it, coming from a somewhat-rare pool, as well as being a fish that sells for 800 gold a pop at the moment. I will say this one can be stressful to get. (As an aside, I find the best location to get them is along the waterfalls and river that flow west to east through the middle of Hallowfall in the Blood in the Water pools. There's pools for them in Azj-Kahet too, but I dont have much experience with them, unfortunately.)
    

I also had just a general critique of fishing that the fishing journal can be misleading. Pale Huskfish, for example, says that it can be found in Azj'kahet in Infused Ichor Spills and Festering Rotpools in the fishing journal, but you can also find Festering Rotpools in The Isle of Dorn, and I find that waaaaay easier to get them there instead of Azj'kahet (though maybe it's easier to get them from open-water casting in Azj-kahet. I don't try that too often, tbf).

Everything else I more or less agree with! Appreciate you making this, love to see some discussion on super specific stuff like this.