When Tuna Switch Bait: Why Menhaden Change the Lighting Game for Fishermen

When Tuna Switch Bait: Why Menhaden Change the Lighting Game for Fishermen

Atlantic bluefin tuna have begun rewriting their menu. With Atlantic herring stocks collapsing, new research shows bluefin are now turning heavily to menhaden (“bunker”) as their primary forage. 

【Click here to see more: Oceanographic Publication on 8/12/2025】

For fishermen, this shift matters not just for bait choice, but for how you set up and use your boat lights. Menhaden are not herring—and they respond to artificial light in a completely different way.


When tuna switch bait
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Menhaden vs. Herring: Light Behavior

  • Herring: Well known to aggregate around strong artificial lights. This is why traditional high-output lamps have long been used to draw them in.

  • Menhaden: Filter feeders that consume plankton. They’re indirectly attracted to light because it pulls in plankton—but menhaden themselves will avoid strong, harsh beams. Too much light and they scatter. What they want is a soft, even glow where plankton build naturally.

Key chain reaction you want:
Light → plankton swarm → menhaden feed → tuna move in.


Why Most Lights Fall Short

1. HPS (High Pressure Sodium)

  • Hard to dim—requires costly ballasts, must warm up at full power, and rarely goes below 50%.

  • Wrong color spectrum—dominated by yellow-orange with only ~5% in blue, the band plankton respond to.

2. Low-Cost LEDs

  • Many don’t offer dimming at all—forcing fishermen into an “all or nothing” setting.

  • Often too weak to raise a real plankton bloom. Without enough power, you’ll never get menhaden to hold.

  • Poor beam control—cheap narrow beams create harsh hot spots that bait avoid.

 

The Menhaden Lighting Playbook

  1. Spectrum: Blue-green wavelengths (~460–540 nm) to concentrate plankton.

  2. Power: Enough output to “raise the plankton” in the first place.

  3. Control: Smooth dimming to dial in the sweet spot—plankton thick enough, menhaden comfortable.

  4. Beam: Flood optics or diffusers to spread light evenly, avoiding spook zones.

 

The Solution: High-Output, Dimmable LEDs

This is exactly why modern, high-output LEDs with full dimming capability are now essential tools for tuna fishermen. They give you both the muscle to pull plankton and the finesse to keep menhaden feeding calmly.

And it’s also why the DuraBrite Gen2 has become the perfect choice:

  • Engineered with legendary output that easily builds a plankton-rich water column.

  • Equipped with true dimming, so you can back off the light the moment menhaden start hanging on the edge.

  • Designed with flood optics for smooth, even coverage—no hot spots, no spooking.

  • Optimized spectrum with strong blue-green content, exactly where plankton respond.

 

Bottom Line

The old “blast it with as much light as possible” mindset no longer works. With tuna now feeding heavily on menhaden, success comes from precision control: the right spectrum, the right beam, and just the right intensity.

HPS can’t do it. Cheap LEDs can’t do it.
DuraBrite Gen2 was built for it.