Atlantic Menhaden

Brevoortia tyrannus

1 min read Spring through fall

Nobody targets menhaden with a rod, and no fish matters more to the fishing. Bunker, as everyone calls them, are the forage base that everything else in the Bay is built on — stripers, bluefish, cobia, ospreys, and eagles all eat them.

They are filter feeders, swimming with mouths open to strain plankton, which makes them a direct link between the bottom of the food web and the top. That filtering also does real work on water clarity. A large school of menhaden is a water-quality asset as much as a food source.

For an angler, the practical point is simple: find the bunker and you have found the predators. A tight school flickering at the surface with birds working over it is the most reliable sign in Chesapeake fishing. Cast-net a few for bait, or just fish the edges of the school and wait.

Gear for this fish

Betts Cast Net Mono 3/8in 5ft Radius

For gathering the bait they represent.

$49.99

Betts Cast Net Mono 3/8in 31/2ft Radius

For gathering the bait they represent.

$34.99

Betts Cast Net Mono 3/8in 5' Radius

For gathering the bait they represent.

$50.99

Gamakatsu Superline Spring Lock Black Size 5/0 3ct

Line for the job.

$5.81

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