Nitro Pro - Brad Yates
Living in the south west town of Busselton, Brad Yates has access to the myriad of bream fishing locations all along the WA coastline. He regularly competes in ABT Qualifying rounds and WA Bream Classic events, helps run a social light tackle sports fishing club and also writes a monthly column in Hotbite fishing magazine.
WA has so much to offer in terms of bream fishing structure. Whether I’m in Walpole fishing 30cm deep crystal clear sand flats, to timber clad rivers in Mandurah and Augusta, to right under the sky scrapers in Perth, I need a rod that is light, sensitive and has plenty of power to pull kilo bream out of their home territory. In the years gone by, I have had to put up with rods that were either not quite right for the job, or I had to build my own. The Nitro Vapor series of rods were first introduced to me when I was involved in a beginner’s day for those who may like to try their hands at bream fishing. Immediately I was impressed at the light weight and stiffness of them. I quickly exchanged my custom rods for a line of Nitro Vapors. And since picking up my first Vapor, I haven’t touched another rod.
When I fish plastics, I like my rods nice and stiff to feel every bite and to impart a real finesse action to my lure. Throwing 1/16th jigs with small 2 inch curl tail grubs or creature baits right into timber, rocky outcrops and down drop offs, I want to feel any slight touch, tap or take of my lure. The bream in those situations are quite often in the kilo plus range and after hooking up I need to be able to get them into the boat quickly. I fish my 6lb line and 6lb leader to the absolute max with tight drags and prefer to bully the fish in. Having fish taking drag is not acceptable to me. After recently being involved in a teams event first place finish, with a bag of 3.95kg for 4 bream pulled from heavy timber, I’m glad I had my favourite 6'0 and 6'6 models to fish with. Many other rods would not have had the power to stop the big fish from busting me off.
The 7' model is also in my arsenal and is the perfect rod for throwing hard body lures across flats. WA is home to some of the best sand flats fishing in Australia, and nothing is more exciting than watching a school of bream in water that barely covers their backs, throwing a lure in front of them and slowly rolling the lure back. With the extra length, it casts a mile and a slightly softer feel takes up a bit of the initial energy that a bream dishes out when it chomps down on my lure. The full set of Fuji SiC guides with the tip guides being titanium framed performs great with modern braided lines that I use. They are smooth and light to keep the rod crisp and make sure I feel each subtle take.
These 2 piece rods are very handy in regards to travel, with each rod having a sturdy rod tube and bag supplied in the purchase. Add to those features the awesome Innovator Rod Insurance Policy, and the fact that they are designed and developed for Australian fishing styles and the choice of buying a new rod for any tournament angler should never be so hard. They also won best new rod for 2008 at the Australian Fishing Trade Association show. Nitro Vapor rods were designed for those in the tournament scene using light line and light lures. If that includes you already, or if you are looking to get into bream or bass tournaments, or even if you want a top quality rod for your social fishing - take a good hard look at them when your considering your next rod. I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised!
