I have a few old suspending Rat-L-Traps. What is the optimal way to use them? Are they effectively useless? I mean... bass hit traps in winter already.

I fish them like a suspending jerkbait.

They suspend around 3’ to 5’, and can be a winner any time fish are being lethargic and not really chasing. While largely considered a “winter” bait, they work pretty much year round.

They work great over submerged grass in the warmer months. Pull them down and then it really is just like fishing a suspending jerkbait, except you just pull them instead of twitch them. I fish them the same way in the winter months, except there is no grass to fish them over.

Never fished the BL suspending traps, but ive relied on the Ima SV70 for 5 or 6 years and the 6th sense slow sink to a lesser extent.

I'm not sure that there is a more versatile search bait for cold shallow water, particularly when its cooling.

Theyre really a hybrid of lipless/crank and sinking JB. You cant really fish it wrong, even if you just steady reel it in, you find fish.

It seems to work best from late November until late Feb or very early march in 2.5" to around 7'.

Ill either start/burn n stop, yo yo it, rip it from the last healthy grass in the fall or bounce it off shallow hard cover. or I mix it up. When you rip them out of grass, they just suspend for a second before the start to sink slow again. More often than not, the fish will hit it, just I start cranking it and sometimes when it stops. In open water its the opposite. The fish generally hit on the pause. It catches fish yo yoing, but the slow sink rate makes it hard to cover water quickly.

Even when it doesnt catch fish, its still valuable. Since its so versatile, with just that bait I can get an idea what the mood is.

I guess I should specify, I don't use the Bill Lewis version hardly ever anymore, although I have a couple of those as well as a suspending Spot. I rely on the 6th Sense, and IMA suspending traps.