Usage of the article 'a' before bait in this particular instance?

Question

Is it acceptable to use the article 'a' before 'bait' in this sentence? Is there a difference in meaning here when you use 'a' or drop it? "You would not have sent it to me for no reason. It was a bait to lure me in, and I took it in spite of knowing it to be one." -Edit- To give a little background information for this sentence, the speaker is talking about a short story that was sent to him along with a solicitation for a report on a particular topic. He says that at first he was not sure if he would accede to the request but the short story got his attention. So the short story is the bait here. Would it then be grammatically incorrect to say, "It was a bait"? -Edit- Am to new to using Google Ngram Viewer as a source of reference, so not sure if I am doing this right. But a search there for "was **a** bait" and "was bait" gives the following results: http://goo.gl/OuuH4

Answer 1

If you use the article 'a' you are saying that this was a single source of bait. Technically it is correct however it reads a little odd. By leaving it out the sentence flows much better. If you want to specify that this was one piece of bait then say "It was a piece of bait...". However, I still think that saying "It was bait..." flows better.

Hope this helps!