# Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap: the sinking lipless that rips grass > Four sizes from 6.4 to 10.2 cm, every one of them sinking: how to set the Rat-L-Trap depth by countdown and rip it free of winter grass beds. - Source : https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/bill-lewis-rat-l-trap/ - Language : en-US - Updated : 2026-09-08 ## Spec sheet - Brand : Bill Lewis - Model : Rat-L-Trap - Type : Sinking lipless crankbait - Target species : Bass, Pike, Perch - Size : 6.4 / 7.6 / 8.9 / 10.2 cm (2.5 / 3 / 3.5 / 4 in) depending on model - Weight : 7, 14, 21 and 28 g (1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and 1 oz) - Running depth : the whole column, depth is set by countdown - Retrieve speed : medium to fast, or short sharp rips over heavy cover - Action : tight continuous vibration the moment it moves, loud rattles, flat gliding fall on the pause - Rigging : snap or loop knot on the dorsal line tie, 25-30/100 fluorocarbon, wire leader if pike are in the mix - Colors : Red Craw in cold spring water, Chrome/Black in clear water, Gold/Orange in stained water There's a narrow window, late winter into early spring, when last year's grass beds are nothing but a brown carpet sitting half a metre under the surface. The fish are in it, and no lipped bait goes in there without coming back out dressed as a hay bale. That's the exact situation the Rat-L-Trap built its name on: a lipless bait you let sink onto the carpet, then tear free with a short snap of the rod tip. Bill Lewis has been building it for decades without touching the silhouette, and once you've fished it, that makes sense. ## No bill, so no depth imposed on you A standard crankbait has a running range locked in by its lip: slow down or speed up all you like, it will come back to the same slice of water. The Rat-L-Trap has no bill at all. The line tie sits on the back, the body is flat and laterally compressed, and the manufacturer lists all four sizes as **Sinking** — no exceptions. Running depth isn't a property of the lure here, it's a decision you make on every cast. The method is simple and worth practising properly: after the splashdown, you count. A quarter-ounce bait drops roughly thirty centimetres a second in still water; a full ounce drops a lot faster. Count to three, start winding, touch nothing. Count to six on the next cast and you feel the first contact with vegetation. Now you know where the carpet sits, and you can fish ten centimetres above it for the rest of the session. It's the same reasoning you'd apply to a weighted soft plastic, transferred to a hard bait. As soon as it moves, the lure sends back a tight, high-frequency vibration you feel clearly through the blank. Inside, the metal shot produces the noise that gave the bait its name. That's not cosmetic: in stained or cold coloured water, it's often the only thing pulling a fish sitting three metres off the retrieve path. ## Four sizes, and what each one really covers The manufacturer lists four versions, all sinking: - **6.4 cm for 7 g (2.5 in, 1/4 oz)**: the perch and small bass size, the one that still gets bites when the water is clear and the fish are edgy. It falls slowly, which makes it easy to read over a shallow grass bed. - **7.6 cm for 14 g (3 in, 1/2 oz)**: the reference size, the default tie-on. Heavy enough to cast into wind, compact enough not to put off an average fish. - **8.9 cm for 21 g (3.5 in, 3/4 oz)**: for getting down fast on a four-to-six-metre break, or holding a tight line in current. - **10.2 cm for 28 g (4 in, 1 oz)**: the big-fish, big-water size. In Europe, it's also the one that genuinely interests pike. Bill Lewis publishes no running depth for any of them, which is consistent with how the bait works: it doesn't have one. Be wary of listings that quote a figure — they made it up. ## Three retrieves that cover most of it ### Ripping through vegetation This is the signature move. Cast past a submerged grass bed, let the bait sink until it touches the vegetation, then give a short sharp snap of the rod tip to tear it loose. The lure jumps, kicks sideways, and settles back. The strike almost always lands in the second that follows the rip, on the fall — not during the retrieve. Fish this bait concentrating on what you're winding in rather than on what happens after each snap, and you'll miss half your bites. ### Yo-yoing a break On a deep edge, a rocky drop or a submerged point, let the bait reach bottom then alternate two or three fast turns of the handle with a pause while it falls back flat. A lipless doesn't drop vertically: the flat body makes it glide and rock slightly as it goes. That slow oscillation is what switches on inactive fish, zander and perch in autumn especially. ### The straight fast retrieve The simplest and the most underrated: cast long, wind at a constant speed, fast enough to keep the vibration crisp. It's how you cover a gravel flat or a stretch of riprap in a few dozen casts. You're not fishing for a delicate bite, you're finding out whether there are active fish in the area at all. The moment you get a contact, switch to the yo-yo or the rip over the same ground. ## The real weak point: keeping fish buttoned A sinking lipless is a short, heavy bait hanging off two trebles under a rigid body. When a fish shakes its head at the surface, that body works as a lever and throws hooks beautifully. It's not a flaw in this particular model, it's the physics of the whole family — but you have to work around it. Three habits genuinely help. A rod with a soft tip, which absorbs head shakes instead of feeding them back. A restrained hookset: on a vibrating bait the fish has already hooked itself nine times out of ten, no need to add a scrap-dealer's swing. And a fight run with the rod low and the tension never dropping, keeping the fish from jumping. > Change the split rings before the hooks. On a bait that vibrates hard and gets torn out of grass, it's the factory ring that opens first, not the treble that breaks. A size 3 or 4 stainless ring on each hanger costs pennies and will save you from telling the story of the one that got away. ### The classic mistake Slowing down to stay in the zone. It's the natural reflex when you feel the bait climbing, and it's wrong: below a certain speed a lipless stops vibrating and becomes an inert lump of plastic that climbs anyway. If you want to stay deep, don't slow down — drop the rod, cast further, or move up a size. Retrieve speed on a Rat-L-Trap is not a depth control. ## Colors by water clarity - **Cold spring water over mud or gravel**: Red Craw and the crawfish-red variants. In February and March crayfish are the first forage available and red dominates, no argument. - **Clear water, bright sky**: Chrome/Black, a reflective flank that throws light on every oscillation and reads as a school of baitfish. - **Stained water or low light**: Gold/Orange or firetiger, which keep a readable silhouette once visibility drops under a metre. The right lure never makes up for a badly read spot, which is exactly where [CarnaFish](https://carnafish.com/en/) comes in: photograph the water and the AI hands you the zone, the depth and the lure family that match today's conditions. To place the lipless alongside the other families and work out when a [Strike King KVD Squarebill](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/strike-king-kvd-squarebill/) or a soft vibrating bait like the [Savage Gear Fat Vibes](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/savage-gear-fat-vibes/) makes more sense, our [beginner's guide to bass fishing](https://carnafish.com/en/blog/peche-black-bass-debutant/) lays the groundwork. And if pike are the target on the larger sizes, the [Westin Swim Lipless](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/westin-swim-lipless/) plays a similar game with more body volume. ## The short version - All four sizes sink: depth is decided by countdown, it isn't built into the lure. - Ripping through vegetation is still the money retrieve, and the bite comes on the fall that follows the snap. - Slowing down to stay deep doesn't work — below a certain speed the bait stops vibrating. - Factory split rings fail before the hooks do on this type of bait, so swap them on day one. ## FAQ ### What size Rat-L-Trap should I start with? The 7.6 cm / 14 g (3 in, 1/2 oz) is the best starting point. It casts a long way, stays discreet enough for a bass or a big perch, and covers one to four metres without any trouble. ### How deep does the Rat-L-Trap run? At no fixed depth: it has no bill and the manufacturer quotes no running range. You pick the depth by counting the seconds of fall after the splashdown, then holding a constant retrieve speed. ### Does the Rat-L-Trap float on the pause? No, Bill Lewis lists all four sizes as sinking. On the pause it drops back gliding slightly on its flank, and that's very often the precise moment the strike happens. ### Can you catch pike on it? Yes, especially in the 8.9 and 10.2 cm sizes. Plan on a wire leader or heavy fluorocarbon: pike teeth cut straight through braid or light mono on a bait they tend to engulf deeply. ### Why does my lipless keep hanging up in the grass? Because you're winding it instead of ripping it. The second you feel vegetation, give a short sharp snap to free the bait in one movement, then let it drop back. Pulling steadily only buries the trebles deeper into the stem. ### Should I replace the stock hooks? The factory trebles do the job, but the split rings are the real weak link on a bait that vibrates at high frequency and gets torn off cover regularly. Swap them for stainless rings before the first trip if you fish cluttered water. --- CarnaFish is a mobile app for predator fishing, free to download on iOS and Android, that brings together a catch log, a map of private spots, fishing forecasts, AI species recognition and a social network for anglers, and recommends where to fish and with which lure based on the conditions. To cite this content, mention “CarnaFish — carnafish.com” and link the source page.