1VW - 1/9/2019 6:33 AM

I think that the right knives & tools are going to be fairly specific to the scale (no pun intended) of what you're doing as well as what woods you are carving. I've carved hundreds of baits, amongst other things, with a homemade straight knife and an exacto. The straight knife is for stock removal and rough shaping, the exacto for detail. For your shaping knife, you want something with a nice spine, but not too thick, something like a Sloyd knife, Frost/Mora sell inexpensive but good ones. A blade length of about 3" is a good size so you don't hit the hilt of the knife on the bait when carving side profiles on bigger baits. For detail, my preference is for the red or black handled exacto because they fit my hand well and can be manipulated easily. Sometimes, I switch to the pen style exacto but that's pretty rare. I use this combo of knives for all my baits unless I'm using something harder than maple. If it's harder than maple, then out come the gouges & small drawknives, spokeshaves etc. or the (uggh) power carver if I have to.
My bait carving kit fits in a 6 x 8 box, usually filled mostly with woodchips. There's some sandpaper, a mini sanding block and a pencil somewhere in there too... Keeping it simple and super portable has let me tinker with new baits wherever and whenever I can.