i was trying to do that. its been a big annoying problem that has come up mutable times in my play-though now is how this games tells you do do something, it'll often leave out if you need a special tool/structure to do something. or not put emphasis on things you cant do without (i had no clean/empty pots, even tryed to put it in a pot but only after i tryed i realized it was full of food)
sadly nothing in the bait instructions says you can use not fresh food, but it sounds like you can. it only things it lists is seemingly fresh food, and says nothing about using food thats not fresh. actually kinda a example of how i have to play the game around the issue i had above, now that i think about it