W2F Blog

What was there not to like about it? The name, the shape and even the sound when you shook it in your closed fist all were extremely appealing. Not to mention that plastic square case that it came in so you could get a good look at the bait.

Yep we were all hooked at our first sighting of the bait. Then when we finally got to fish the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap, we were even more excited. It could cast a country mile, it made a racket that you knew would rile up the weariest of bass and it just flat caught them.

The bait was a break from the norm of lipped minnow and round shaped baits. It's profile was more like that of a natural shad and it's subtle little wiggle and rattle combination was something new to the bass.

It spurred a new category of crankbaits called lipless crankbaits. It was an overnight sensation on the tournament trail and still catches fish both for recreational anglers and professional anglers. It spawned all sorts of applications from ripping it out of the grass, yo-yoing it deep, to burning it over flats. It's equally good around rock as it as around grass.

For all these reasons and its lasting impact on the fishing tackle industry, we had to put the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap in our top five of Most Influential Bass Fishing Lures of All Time.