Fishing bait
substance or device used to attract fish
Fishing bait is any luring substance used specifically to attract and catch fish, typically when angling with a hook and line. There are generally two types of baits used in angling: hookbaits, which are directly mounted onto fish hooks and are what the term "fishing bait" typically refers to; and groundbaits, which are scattered separately into the water as an "appetizer" to attract the fish nearer to the hook. Despite the bait's importance in provoking a feeding response out of the target fish, the way that fish react to different baits is quite poorly understood.
Fishing baits can be grouped into two broad categories: natural baits and artificial baits. Traditionally, fishing baits are natural food or prey items (live or dead) that are already present in the fish's normal diet (e.g. worms, insects, crustaceans and smaller bait fish), and such baits are both procured from and used within the same environment. Artificial baits, conversely, are not naturally acquired and must involve some kind of production process. These can be processed foods (e.g. bread, cheese, dough, cutlets, fish food or pet food pellets, etc.), commercially made feed mixtures (e.g. boilies), or imitative replica "fake foods" made of inedible materials known as lures (e.g.
The public source identifies “Fishing bait” as substance or device used to attract fish. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fishing, bait and substance.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q803978. The Library of Congress control number is sh85011044. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fishing bait” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.