How To Get The Fishing Rod Early in Chapter 2 : Quick Guide 

Thanks for your guide. I'm right at the start of Chapter 2 (did -nothing-) and this worked for me. However, the Lilly May whiner encounter kept spawning so I just ignored the person until they left the area, slept, then the fisherman was near where I woke up. Since I didn't talk to the Lilly May person, hopefully it will still spawn later as I'm trying to keep this save game as fresh as possible.

Cheers, played the game 6 times now and always thought you had to do the mission with Jack to get the fishing rod.

I’ve tried this loads of times, never hog tied them though, I’ll try it next time. Nice 1