The lantern does much more than draw insects.

The light basically draws in phytoplankton which is essentially micro algae. This is the basic bottom of your food chain.

This is helpful especially for your planktonic eating fish... For example, gizzard shad.

Ok so now you have the micro algae being drawn to the light, shad are being drawn to phytoplankton/micro algae and as you all know shad are the main food source for many of the fish in our lakes. That's when your crappie show up to eat the shad.