Fish in the early-midgame?

[PinkHoodieGuy]

So playing Stardew Multiplayer, I sort of spent my entire first 3 months fishing while my friend slowly grinded Foraging, Farming, and the like.
Initially, I started off temporarily more wealthy as Fishing holds immediate results, but only 3 months in I don't have a constant stream of passive income because I need to fish all day to make ~2k, when I wanna cook and stuff too! Is there a way to earn passive income as a Fisher, or is that simply not in the cards?
(*I have made two ponds, one for Sturgeons and one for Lava Eels, but they produce Roe way too slowly to be a viable source of income alone ;-;)

 

[MateoOfRiverwood]

Fish Ponds will only get you basic quality fish, but the roe they produce can be aged in a pickling / preserves jar for money.

For certain specific fish (lava eels, but even catfish aren’t shabby) you can get some income that way.

Fish Smokers can also be very good, as smoked fish doubles the value of fish, and preserved quality… so iridium fish that are smoked sell for twice the regular iridium fish price. Fish Smokers do require a steady stream of coal to do in bulk though, and it takes X time to smoke each fish.

long term, fishing will probably never match artisan goods or even farming for passive income. Fish ponds / roe are fairly passive, but kind of an up front cost to get it going.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Fish ponds are pretty much the only real passive moneymaker that fishing offers, but don't let you think that they're bad because of a starvation of options.

Fish ponds are incredibly versatile in the items they can give and good for money too, especially with 1.6 allowing legendary fish which are great for profit, and the ability to double their produce later along in the game with animal crackers (something they're incredibly effective for the space for, as each cracker buys you basically another 25 tiles as opposed to 2-3 for a coop or barn animal).

Generally the higher the value of the fish and the more difficult it is to catch is directly proportional to profit in a fish pond, as the roe value is determined by fish sell value, it's a little more nuanced than that but as a general guideline it definitely won't do you wrong. With higher value fish too, many forget you can actually fish the breeding fish out and sell or smoke/sell them for money too, and it can be a fair bit of additional profit at that, especially if you're just 'skimming the top' few fish.