Fishing is boring, how can I fish faster?
Solution 1:
Without installing mods, you can equip an item that gives a bonus to fishing luck. Higher fishing luck will increase the odds of getting a rarer item from a successful fishing attempt, although it won't make the process itself any less painful.
One such item is the Sushi Helm. You can create one by combining 3 Sushi Grade Fish Meat, any blue pistol, any blue shield, and any blue belt.
If you fish in a map that uses the Mines tileset, you will occasionally fish up Emberbright Cod, which can be eaten to give a +50% bonus to fishing luck for 20 minutes. (Source)
On the other hand, if you decide to install mods, you should look into the Merchant Pack (which adds a fish vendor) or FishMash (which lets you combine small fish into larger ones).
Solution 2:
I you want to do a lot of automatic fishing (i.e. to get the achievement) you can record a macro that's triggered by a pixel turning a certain colour. I use MacroGamer, but there are many. The trick in Torchlight is that there are lots of moving lighting and shadow effects that make it hard to predict exactly what colour to look for. I found that the easiest place to set up a macro is in the town:
At the bottom of the dock, where the dark part of the wood touches the rings, there are no varying lights (aside from the translucent rings passing over it). When the rings line up, the outside ring disappears and the inside ring turns from blue to grey. If you can capture a screenshot exactly when that happens, you can train the macro to watch for that colour - the translucent grey ring against the dark brown grain. Now just record the rest of the macro, which clicks on the hook icon, then clicks the "OK" button, then clicks the fishing hole again, and loop. Walk away for about 5 hours (averages 3-4 fish per minute when staying at the same hole), and you should have about 1000 fish sitting on the dock when you return.
Solution 3:
I recommend you take a look at this:
Just scroll down, there's a list of items, maybe it will give you a hint on how to get them. Good luck, or what a fisher in German speaking areas would say "Petri heil"! ;)