I see where you're coming from with pressing spacebar instead of using mouse click, it would definitely continue the flow of the gameplay better :)
Yes, the bait affects the catch. Putting more bait in means a higher likelyhood of getting rare fish (decreasing the chance of lower ranked fish in turn!) and the color of the bait affects the likelyhood of what color fish will bite.
Losing the fish when spamming would have been a good consequence that we hoped to add, but unfortunately ran out of time for... but we're hoping to add it after the jam! Thanks for playing!