Here's an example from 1994 that uses it in the fishing sense: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.scuba/PuZh2Hck_C...

> > The shop told me that Dacor and Scubapro have good reputations for > > stocking spare parts for all their products, no matter how old. > > This does cause their prices to run a little higher.

> (Gosh--this looks like a troll for a flame-war. I couldn't help > but visualize myself standing in a used car lot.)

Here it's pretty clear that it's being used in the sense of someone dropping a lure, a bit of tasty bait.