It's Time: THE TACKLE BOX.

[Rufalus]

You're not thinking outside of the tacklebox at all, and are fixated on the concept of a zero sum inventory count. There are multiple ways something like this could be implemented that don't even take up inventory slots at all.

If they get stored somewhere else like a currency it still runs into server stability issues they described when character data gets too bloated. I don't know if this is possible but maybe they could do it so that bait data is only accessed when you commence fishing (which may incur a slight wait time before you can select the bait) and it's not being accessed in any other situations so it doesn't cause server issues when people are switching zones and stuff. But also yeah it's a bit of a non issue, people can just manage their items better, only carry what they need.

[Mhaeric]

If they get stored somewhere else like a currency it still runs into server stability issues they described when character data gets too bloated. I don't know if this is possible but maybe they could do it so that bait data is only accessed when you commence fishing.

I was thinking it would be something like the armoire or even the fishing log window (with all baits listed and current stored inventory count for each) and would only be accessible by the system when you access the bait window when on fisher.