Yeah, I read the tips. I even followed that advice to the letter. Used pulls to get their stamina to basically 0, them spammed click to reel. Progress was inconsistent and I couldn't tell whether the focus was on pulling them to the right, or pulling them up, but with both the yellow and the blue fish I got to the point where you'd think I'd be dominating but I wasn't. I can record a quick video if you want.
Viewing post in Soporo: Fishing In Ruin Demo jam comments
It sounds like you're trying to get them in with just pulls (Z key), when you reel with X (hold it). Here is a sample of intended gameplay: https://streamable.com/oot4d3