Repeated mentioning of fishing got me thinking; How about phishing.
-Colonists would use a modified comms console
-Social skill would determine success rates
-Phishing would fall under crafting to prevent cluttering of priorities page
-Long term activity, not prioritizable (like research)
-Colonists would be specifically assigned to the bench
-A successful scam would result in a drop of silver or materials to trade beacon
Comments? Questions? Flames?
-Argon
A successful scam might also result in a complementary drop of fissionable material in critical state.
"Don't scam the guy who can nuke you from orbit"
I think we would also need an unsuccessful scam (probability of) consequence; maybe a DoS attack against your comms console prevents you from contacting anyone for trade for a while or a virus infects your power grid and you suffer from "brownouts" for a while.