Abstract: A fish bait (1) is provided in which individual pieces of bait material (2 ) are suspended and evenly distributed throughout a homogenized mixture of bait material and a gelling agent (3), and enclosed in a supporting tubular mesh (4). The fish bait is obtained by mixing bait material with a gelling agent to form a substantially homogeneous mixture, adding further bait material to the homogenous mixture so that bait material is suspended in the homogeneous mixture and extruding the suspended mixture into a mesh tube and subsequently allowing the gelling agent to set. Once set, the gelling agent stabilizes the suspended structure of the fish bait and allows the controlled release and diffusion of attractants. Preferably, the gelling agent is an alginate.