Enchanted Nightcrawler

It is one of the stronger baits available before hardmode, but the reason it matters is that you can make it rather than hunt for it. Plain worms are everywhere and converting them in bulk means a fishing session never ends because you ran dry. Anyone doing a serious crate grind should be turning worms into these instead of hoarding whatever the ground happens to hand over.

They appear during a meteor shower when the sky is mostly clear, which in practice means a lantern night is the best time to go looking for them. Worms in general come out of the ground during rain. Both kinds get trapped in single-tile pits, so a line of one-block holes dug along flat ground collects them for you while you do something else. The trap only works if the blocks on either side are full: hammer them into slopes and the worms crawl straight out.

Once one goes into the decorative cage it is not coming back out as bait unless you shimmer the furniture apart. Keep the pretty one separate from the fishing stack.