I know it's been asked before but.... (fishing)

[FaileExperiment]

Or to come at the problem from another side, stop adding new types of bait(and probably strip out a few since we already have so many). Smaller fish everywhere would be perfectly fine with little worms. Also, focus more heavily on the concept of isolating a desired catch at a given hole with a specific bait.

Ding, ding, ding. Solution right here. There are too many varieties... of just about everything in this game. Remember when we had 5 grades of every type of glamour prism (and even now we still have a prism type for each crafting job for some reason)? That's the general approach SE takes to consumables in this game. 3 or 4 different lures, usable from level 1. Freshwater bait, ocean bait, again usable from level 1 to 100. We shouldn't need more than that.

In fact, lures should work exactly like spear gigs do. Let's say there's a lure for each type of fishing (ocean, fresh water, lava, cloud, etc). As you learn them your lure box grows, and you can select them the same way you do gigs. no need for it to even be a consumable and no need for inventory.