Every year, a large number of lures appear and disappear from the traders' brooches. Few of them are so long-lasting that they become references and points of comparison! The Illex Nitro Shad is one of those and after 10 years of existence, it is not only still present but the range of sizes and colours available is growing.
A tonic and reactive gum
The Nitro Shad is a lure originally designed for bass fishing in traction. It has now been extended to all predators, especially pike, which has been hunted more and more in recent years in "pelagic" using flexible lures that are animated in line and in traction.
It has been designed with this in mind and has a profile typical of the soft lures developed for this technique: relatively high and rounded profile to provoke an important rolling when pulling and releasing (the mounting of the leaded head also has a huge influence on this behaviour!) and a thick and round tail to provoke powerful vibrations that can be perceived from afar.
The density of the material used being a determining factor in the vibrations emitted, the rubber of the Nitro Shad is at the same time dense but retaining enough flexibility to remain very reactive, which allows it to vibrate at all recovery speeds and produce powerful vibrations.
A medium sized paddle
The density of the plastic is not the only important characteristic to consider when talking about the vibrations of a soft lure. Indeed, the size of the paddle is determining and the size of the Nitro Shad is not oversized, even small compared to the total volume of the lure.
A shad that works in all conditions
Due to the characteristics described above, the Nitro shad differs from its direct competitors and makes it a very versatile traction lure, pleasant to use and which works in all conditions. It is indeed this main characteristic that makes its strength and the reason for its success.
The Nitro Shad and its competitors
Indeed, for traction fishing I use the Nitro Shad, but also Flashmer's Blue Shad and Madness's Madshad. These three lures are totally different in terms of design and swimming. Indeed, the Blue Shad has a wider and heavier paddle and its material is softer, which gives it a slower swimming and descent, whereas the Madshad is on the contrary very tonic with its hard rubber and I reserve it only for areas with strong currents.
Its behaviour in the water
In the water, the Nitro Shad reacts to the slightest traction and quickly goes into action. Its paddle vibrates at a fairly high speed and its shape provokes an important rolling, both when pulling and descending. Thus the lure shows its flanks by tilting from right to left around the longitudinal axis and then highlights all its colours and differences in opacity.
What I particularly like about the Nitro Shad is that it produces important vibrations without shooting in the water and in the rod. In fact, it is very fast in action and very pleasant to use and crosses easily through the water layer, which makes it possible to combine it with light leaded heads and thus have a natural descent to the bottom. At the same time, with a sensitive rod, the caudal returns are perfectly perceptible, which makes it possible to control that its lure evolves in the desired way.
The 2021 range
This year, the range of the Nitro Shad is growing with the arrival of the small 65mm which should seduce the sea bass but also perch and pikeperch, and maybe even prove to be efficient on trout. This new size completes the 90, 120, 150 and 180mm models. For my part, I use the 4 sizes for sea bass depending on the season and the position.
The two largest sizes are the most used in freshwater in alpine lakes to look for pike in traction.
The variety of colours available is also increasing by 3 colours this year and brings the range to around 10 colours to suit all situations encountered. At sea, I mainly use the Blue Herring, Jelly Shad, Clear Ayu, Green Sprat and finally the Shiner.
In addition, the Nitro Shad range has a thinner cousin in the shape of a lanyard, the Nitro Slim Shad available in 150 and 180mm.
