Ocean fishing is horribly designed

[Alleo]

i think it'd be more fun if combat jobs could come along and defend the boat from aggressive mobs (and get bonuses in doing so)

or provide some manner of bonus, like bards playing sea shanties giving +gp regen or a bonus to gathering/perception, machinists providing sonar equipment/a thresher to throw all your worthless fish into

That might just mean that most people would just go there with their combat jobs and would took away from the first new real fishing content. Honestly just install some kind of weapons on the boat or give us some special skills when a fight happens (like using those spears for fishing for fighting) and even a fisher should be able to defend themselves just fine.