I hope this isn't too dumb a question. If it is, well i hadn't been fishing but about 5 years and will claim ignorance hehe

Since i started using lipless crank baits, I hadn't pulled out an old rattletraps such as the Bill Lewis in a long time. When and why would you use one or the other

well there both lipless cranks but some brands have a diff sound they make so if everyone on the lake is using a strike king trap u can go right behind them with a bill norman and catch fish they didnt catch just bc its diff. or if u been catching them on a spot and it stops some times all it takes is showing them a diff brand and u may start catch em again

well, there are rat-l-trap brand lipless cranks made by Bill Lewis, they are the original "trap" as far as I know....and still very popular.

But it seems like just about every lure maker out there now makes "traps" or lipless crankbaits. Some of my favorites are made by Yo-Zuri, Excalibur, strike king and lucky craft. I usually keep a fair amount of in my boat in 1/2 and 3/4 oz in shad colors, red craw, and chartuese patterns.

Each lure makers "trap" sounds a little bit different in the water, and some brands are even starting to make silent baits...experiment a little, you may find that on lakes where fish see/hear a lot of the standard rat-l-trap you might get bit a little more with a less common or popluar model...

Good luck!

This ^^^^^^

...always good to remember, bass don't think like we do, because....they don't think, they react..

alot of the newer lipless cranks run with a more head down presentation and deflect better. cotton cordells ride higher than most. i dont hardly use bill lewis anymore but they still work.

Thanks guys for the responses

They still tear em up for sure!!!

I use rat-l-traps a lot and still catch lots of fish on them. I do use a few red eye shad too and they have a different sound. It seems the fish slam them a lot harder then a trap. Im thinking the higher pitched sound from the red eye shad really gets the fish mad. I use a few of the academy brand baits as well and have been having the best luck on them lately.

I've gone to Red eye shads and almost everytime I fish with it, my dad will fish with a bill lewis in bleeding shad (literally one out of 2 different colors of traps he has) and out of the 4 or 5 times we'll each be fishing these I've out fished him almost 2 to 1 but just last weekend I was fishing with a red eye and my brother was fishing with a quarter ounce bleeding shad trap and caught a 9 pounder. so you never know. (Also, crazy side note, in March my brother caught the exact same fish on the exact same lure, she has a mark on her much like "dottie")

funny how that works huh?

I've got Red Eyes Shads, Excalibur, an old Lucky Craft lipless I inherited and have caught some fish on all of them. But the red/chartreuse Lewis Rat-L-Trap still catches more fish than any of them. Who knows why. Just my experience. Maybe it's a confidence thing.

I also use the Strike Kings, Excaliburs, and Yozuri's more than the original rattle trap, but a couple of the rattle trap colors work very well. One that has worked well for me is the chrome/blue back with the black tiger stripes on the side.

I think the Bayou Boogie (Whooper Stopper Lures, Sherman, TX) may have been the first "lipless crankbait." I probably threw my first one in the mid-1960s. A great high school friend's grandfather owned the company and I used to get few free lures once in a while. I caught tons of bass in the late '60s on Bayou Boogies.
Whooper Stopper also made the original Hellbender. Now that lure is used as a diving plane to get small spoons deep so trollers can catch white bass and stripers. It used to be a great deep-diving crank bait for bass!

Yes, the Heddon (Whopper Stopper TM) Bayou Boogie was one of the first, if not the first Lipless Crankbait. It was either that one or Cotton Cordell's "Gay Blade" but that wasn't a rattling bait. There was also the Bomber "Pinfish" but I think it came along later.

Cotton Cordell produced the first rattling lipless crankbait in the style we use today. It was called the Hot Spot and also was known as the "one knock" due to the one lead "knocker" inside the bait. He also made this bait in the "Top Spot" and "Super Spot" (and several others I can't recall) changing rattle configurations over the years.

This IS the bait that the Rat-L-Trap designers knocked off.

Actually, Cordell produced some of the finest artificial lures ever, beginning commercial design and production in the 50's. Many of the hard baits and spoons we fish today originated with this great man.

kinda like the debate of whether the Yellow magic is better than the Chug Bug. each day is different, and each day they prefer one over the other. I just wish I knew what that little pea sized brain was thinking, because I have spent a lot of money on stuff that I dont have confidence in! LOL! Its amazing how their little brain and natural instincts can baffle the human brain.