ICAST, the world's largest fishing tackle show, continues through Friday at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

ICAST, The annual show of the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades—is underway this week through Friday at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. It’s the largest fishing tackle show on the planet.

The trade show, founded by the American Sportfishing Association or ASA, has been ongoing for 67 years. It used to bounce around the country a bit, with Las Vegas the preferred Western stop, but for the last decade or so has settled in at Orlando.

Exhibitors will compete for the coveted New Product Showcase “Best of Show” awards in 41 categories leading up to the coveted, overall “Best of Show” award. The overall event typically draws over 600 vendors or companies and has an attendance around 13,000 from some 80 nations in the vast 220,000 square foot expo hall.

The show is not open to the general public, so you can’t go there and buy the latest and greatest lures and gear—most of the stuff shown here will start popping up in tackle shops and online in September or later. The show is open to retailers, wholesalers, independent shop owners, buyers, pro-staff, independent manufacturers’ reps, media, custom tackle builders, and industry representatives.

The massive show typically draws over 600 companies and over 13,000 industry representatives to see the latest and greatest tackle and associated gear.

Pretty much everybody who is anybody in the fishing world attends the show, and it’s common to rub elbows with guys like Kevin Van Dam, Jimmy Houston, Roland Martin, Jacob Wheeler, Ott DeFoe, the Lane brothers and many others in the aisles and at the booths of their sponsors.

One genre sure to draw a lot of interest this year is marine electronics, where the lid has been blown off for the last few years since introduction of live-view and forward scanning sonar by the big three makers, Garmin, Humminbird and Lowrance. (Less known but popular with big game anglers who chase billfish, Furuno is also very strong in this field, as well.) The companies involved in this technology have seen their high-dollar products fly off the shelves, and most big money tournaments these days are won by anglers using these machines.

There’s also a lot of buzz this year around new high-tech reels, as usual, and more advanced (and more expensive) fishing kayaks, as well as more lithium battery vendors and of course, many, many new lures.

What can they show us next? We’ll see it coming out of the New Product Showcase, where there are typically over 1,000 entries ranging from said high-end marine electronics to tiny items like a better snap swivel or sinker. The top products are selected by vote at the show—we’ll report on many of these in next week’s edition.

The New Product Showcase is a highly-competitive awards contest where top picks are often best-sellers in the months after the show.

Fishing does seem to be on a roll at present.

According to the Recreational Fishing & Boating Association in a new report, American’s are trying fishing for the first time at a record pace. Check these statistics:

• 21.3 million women went fishing in 2023, the highest number of female participants on record.
• 4.2 million Americans tried fishing for the first time in 2023.
• Fishing participation nearly doubled in a decade among Hispanic Americans ages 6 and over, increasing from 3.5 million in 2013 to 6.3 million in 2023.
• Fly fishing participation topped 8 million for the first time in 2023.
• Some 5.2 million Black Americans ages 6 and over fished in 2023, the highest number since activity tracking began in 2007.
• Females represented 37 percent of total anglers, 41 percent of first-time participants.
• Saltwater fishing’s growth continued in 2023, as participation increased 5 percent to 15 million participants - the highest number on record, exceeding 2020 by 500,000 anglers, and pre-COVID 2019 by nearly 2 million.

“Throughout 2023, fishing remained a gateway to health and wellbeing for the more than 4.2 million first-time participants. These new anglers are younger, more diverse, and digitally connected,” says Dave Chanda RFBA president. “By understanding the demographics, motivations and barriers of participants, the fishing industry can better reach America’s youngest citizens, nurture a new generation of conservation-minded fishing enthusiasts, and retain those new to the sport.”

Sounds like good news for the industry, as well as for the health of our lakes and rivers.

Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com