Featured Lure: Mann’s Stretch

We’d been trolling so long without action that the optimism from hearing the previous day’s reports was beginning to wane just as the cold that had left a skim of ice on the back bays was beginning to seep through my jacket. Just then, Captain Ed Berger called our attention to a solid red blob on the fishfinder, 25 feet down. Bunker.

In late 2014, big schools of the oily baitfish had kept the stripers around into November despite plummeting water temperatures. We had three rods out, one dragging a mojo rig along the sand bottom, and two dragging Mann’s Stretch 30s. The deep-diving minnow plugs were swimming about 25 feet down. Berger had set them out on medium-heavy spinning rods that were vibrating quietly until the portside rod bucked wildly as a striper that had been haunting the bunker school peeled off and attacked the plug.

Mann’s Bait Company was founded in 1958 by Alabama Game Warden Tom Mann. Mann got his start by making lures for largemouth bass, and with the Mann’s Bait Company factory located on the shores of one of the Yellowhammer State’s best bass lakes, Lake Eufala, he had the perfect venue to test his creations.

The lure that put Mann’s Bait Company on the maps of bass fishermen around the country was the Little George, named for the Alabama Governor, George Wallace. Today, the lure would be classified as a tail-spinner, a painted, teardrop-shaped piece of lead with a Colorado spinner blade on the tail. It was, and is, productive for targeting deep-water largemouths and smallmouths.

We were a long way from Lake Eufala when we netted and released the 20-pound striper and reset the spread. We didn’t get far before another one of the rods trolling a Stretch knocked down again.

The Stretch is the most popular saltwater lure for the Mann’s Bait Company and one of the most popular striper trolling lures in the Northeast. The popularity of the Stretch speaks to its ease of use. The Mann’s Stretch swims as deep as 30 feet, depending on the model, without the use of wire or leadcore line. This allows fishermen to slow-troll them on the same gear they use to live-line bunker, making for more lively fights. For fishermen who troll too infrequently to justify buying specialized trolling gear, the Stretch keeps them into fish on those days when stripers are too spread out to make live bait or jigs effective.

Trolling Stretches is a top producer of big stripers from the time they first arrive in the spring all the way until frigid water temperatures send the last fish south. This deep-diving plug is a perfect representation of large baitfish, like a bunker or herring, with its large profile and tight swimming action. The bait was redesigned in 2015, creating the Textured Stretch. Raised gillplates give the bait a more realistic profile, while textured sides reflect more light. New 3D eyes complete the package, making this classic trolling lure more enticing than ever.

The Stretch series is available in a number of sizes and diving depths from the 10+ for walleye to the Giganticus 50+ for offshore fishing. The Imitator Series features a closer-to-life profile of a bunker that swims to 25 feet or deeper. Most popular among striper fishermen are the 25+ and 30+. The oversized lip allows the bait to quickly reach its maximum diving depth while tracking straight, even at higher speeds.

Over the following week, the bass schools thinned out as fish headed south to the Chesapeake, where they’d remain until spring. The Mann’s Stretch 30s used to catch the last big bass of 2014 were rinsed and put away until the stripers returned, and they’d be called upon to find and fool the first big bass of 2015.