I got the salter on my third window yup, he bites...bat-o-nine tails on the other hand... I was fishing next to a lala...I got the animation twice...escaped twice...then the lala gets the animation...and gets him, he had far far worse gear than I... I cried... my 6th window on this guy...never saw him bite before...and on this one I got 2 bites and seeing the fish get away twice depressed me a lot xD.
I honestly think people going serious with big fishing on this game are brutally masochist (I know I am), it really tests your patience to insane levels.

I'm at 100/112 right now, but spearnose, carp diem, sweetnewt and twitchbeard are not accessible (and I guess they are relatively easy compared to what I've been fishing until now), hopefully SE makes the silly snow stop soon...I'm hitting my head on a brick wall trying to get pirate's bane, and already got 99 silver sharks which I turned into shark oils (always look at the bright side lo)