"He also mentioned that the next phase of these fishing adjustments is to change the system so that instead of fish HP decreasing while you constantly hold down the directional keys, HP will decrease if you hit the directional key once"
i think by once they mean you just it the button once per direction change but instead of holding down the button we just tap it.
its annoying with a controler cuz we use anilog sticks for movement/fishing which move in a 360 axis from a singular point. And at times and slight movement can cause you to lose your catch.