Bait

For more information, see Bait.

Bait is a group of items that is mandatory for fishing. When a fishing pole is cast, at least one bait item must be in the player's inventory; otherwise, nothing can be caught. Fishing poles will cast their lines with no baits, but there will be no "bites" and no catches. The bait item is only consumed once the player reels in the line with a catch on the hook. It is not consumed upon the player casting the line or the line being reeled in with no catch. Even when the player does reel in a fish, there is only a chance that the bait will be consumed.

There are several items that can serve as bait, and they must be obtained in different ways depending on the type:


 * Most critters that are arthropods (including insects, but also the scorpions), snails, or worms can be used as bait, and must be caught with the Bug Net, Lavaproof Bug Net, or.
 * The Truffle Worm is unique in that it is only used for summoning Duke Fishron. It cannot be used for ordinary fishing.
 * The Magma Snail, Hell Butterfly, and Lavafly can only be caught with a Lavaproof Bug Net or Golden Bug Net. When used as bait, they have the special property of allowing the player to fish in lava.
 * Blue, Green, and Pink Jellyfish bait items are unrelated to the Jellyfish enemies. They are themselves caught via fishing.
 * "Angler Bait":,  and  are acquired as rewards for completing quests for the Angler NPC, as well as from crates.

Bait Power
Bait power influences the quality of the catch (see Fishing for details and other factors), as well as the chances that the bait item will be consumed: Higher bait powers mean less chance that the bait item will be consumed.
 * 5% bait power means the bait will oftentimes be consumed immediately.
 * Higher multiples of 5% mean that the bait will last approximately that number of fishing attempts (50% bait = 10 catches on average, or 10% chance of bait consumption upon use).
 * The Tackle Box adds 5% of bait power that is used only to compute the chance of consuming bait. That means it is not very useful for the bait items high in bait power, but can significantly improve the number of fish caught with 5% or 10% baits.

Tips

 * Fishing itself can be a viable way of obtaining bait: Using Crate and Sonar Potions, and refusing common catches like Bass, the Angler Bait obtained from the crates is generally more than what was used, and Master Bait with its 50% bait power (and thus, durability) will rapidly replace any other kind of bait.
 * However, gathering bait critters is fairly easy in the Forest, Jungle, or Hallow biomes. The options depend on biome and time of day.
 * The spawn rates and spawn caps of critters are affected by many of the same factors as those of hostile enemies, hence Water Candles,, Battle Potions, Calming Potions and Sunflowers will affect critter spawns. As such, when attempting to farm critters, it is advised to use a Battle Potion, and either hold or place a Water Candle nearby.
 * In all cases, nearby NPCs improve the proportion of critters as compared to enemies. Provided enough are nearby, they can even suppress enemy spawns completely, which results in critters being the only creatures able to spawn.
 * When in the Underworld or in Expert Mode, enemies may still occasionally spawn, even when many NPCs are nearby.
 * Worms, Grasshoppers, and Jungle baits (Buggy, Grubby, and Sluggy) can be found while destroying background objects on the surface (see table below) If the number of bait critters on the map has reached its upper limit, no more will spawn. The 3 types of Jungle baits share a total upper limit of 8.
 * Flower Boots are an excellent means to farm bait. They work on all types of grass whose plants are suitable for spawning critters – regular, Jungle, and Hallowed.  A highly effective method is to stand in one spot while wearing the Flower Boots and repeatedly destroy the flowers beneath the player.  Firing a Flare at the player's feet works well too. In both cases, the boots immediately cause new ones to grow.

Fireflies and Lightning Bugs

 * spawn at night. They tend to congregate near NPC houses in the Forest biome and often spawn in very large numbers. In The Hallow, they are replaced by the superior . Their bait power is modest but sufficient for early fishing, and they are comparatively plentiful.
 * The spawn rate of Fireflies is randomly determined at the beginning of each night. Therefore, on some nights massive swarms will be encountered while on other nights very few will spawn. They tend to spawn in especially high numbers at the new moon.
 * Fireflies will not spawn during rain, however, the Worm spawn rate will increase significantly.
 * The Fireflies' spawn rate can be increased by building a platform in the sky high enough so that the ground is not visible. Because terrestrial critters have nothing to spawn on, more Fireflies will spawn. Remember that nearby NPC houses will help.
 * Wings will speed up the job of catching Fireflies considerably. Lacking those, a network of interconnected platforms will also do the trick.

Worms

 * spawn in the Forest when it is raining. Spending a rainy day walking around NPCs can result in a lot of Worms.
 * Worms will spawn only where rain falls onto grass, watch out for overhanging buildings.
 * Worms cannot climb even a single-block "cliff". Standard placed blocks being square makes a perfect trap for them. It is possible to catch several dozen in one rainy day, by just collecting them in a hole at the end of a flat area. Note that the hole must be at least 2 tiles wide for the player to stand in and swing a Bug Net.

Trivia

 * The names of the three bait types are based on the three ranks of craft guilds, Apprentice, Journeyman (or fellow), and Master (sometimes grandmaster).
 * The Master Bait's name is a double-entendre on the word "masturbate". This is a common joke in the fishing industry, used by real-life fishermen, bait shops, and in numerous hook baiting tutorials.