Very few overnight charter vessels visit Bait Reef for their scuba diving activities nowadays as it is some distance from the Whitsunday Islands themselves. It can take the best part of a full day for a sailing vessel to get to and from the outer reef and as a result most sailing vessels prefer to remain in the shelter of the Whitsundays where diving is also excellent.

Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator spent the night of 18 October 1802 anchored just south of Hook Reef. His dead reckoning of the time puts him inside the reef but this obviously was not the case as next morning he speaks of the reef being ‘not further distant than two miles’ to the north. (Flinders, Matthew A Voyage to Terra Australis London 1814) The name ‘Hook Reef’ was given in 1888 by Lieutenant G.E. Richards, RN, in HMS Paluma and undoubtedly was derived from Hook Island's name, the reef being the closest major one to it. In a moment of drollery Richards gave the name ‘Bait Reef’ to the small reef to the west of Hook Reef and Captain J.A. Edgell, RN, in HMAS Moresby in 1926 carried on the game and added Line, Sinker and Net Reefs nearby. (Richards’ and Edgell's charts).