What is the Difference Between Bait and Lure Fishing?

One thing to note before actually answering the question is what is bait and what is a lure. Lures have also been referred to as artificial baits. Lots of lures have bait in the name, like a crankbait or spinnerbait. A fisherman might say something like, "you have a nice bait there" pointing to a wooden minnow. That being said, in 2023, if you said "I am going bait fishing today" practically no one would assume you would be using lures. So this question will be answered where bait means food and not a lure.

Bait and lure fishing are the two large schools or categories of fishing techniques. With bait fishing, you are typically putting a food item the fish would like to eat on a hook. With lure fishing, you have a lure constructed out of materials such as wood, plastic, or metal which the fish ends up striking. The interesting part about lure fishing is that in some cases, the lure is meant to imitate a legitimate food item to trick the fish. But in other cases, lures can trigger bites from fish for other reasons, like aggression. (e.g. a spawning fish that will not actually consume food)

There are also blurred lines between bait and lure fishing where you are doing both at the same time. For example, you smother a hair jig with a bait liquid, paste, or gel. Another example, you impale a real worm on a rig with spinners and beads on it. Besides the philosophical arguments, you need to follow the law for the body of water if there are any applicable fishing regulations.

Some people might choose to only do one and not the other. Such as a hardcore fly angler with lures (artificial flies) only. But all around anglers will find themselves doing a fair bit of both. For some species of fish, you can really only catch a fish on hook and line with bait or a lure, but not both.

Fishing Fundamentals