ICAST 2016 fishing tackle show coverage

ICAST 2016 Coverage

	Gary Loomis Maintains his Edge It's been a couple of years since we've had the chance to catch up with Edge Rods, but when we saw Gary Loomis's smiling face at the booth, we knew they must have had something good baking in the rod oven. Here's what we found out.
	Fenwick Extends Elite Tech and Updates Aetos Fenwick continues their steady and deliberate revival refining existing rod series with lighter, higher performing blanks. Last year, it was about their new top end World Class series of rods - which, by the way, are currently under review by us. This year, Fenwick turned their attention to their popular mid-level rod for some serious refinement.
	Gammy Extends Their Swivel Reach It was a relatively quiet show this year for Gamakatsu - at least on the bass side. The company continues to refine their G-Finesse series of hooks finally bringing to market a hook Shin Fukae shared with us some time ago - the Swivel Shot Worm.
	Getting a Handle on Gill Marine With their big introduction of the Vortex Hood during last year's ICAST, things were a bit more quiet and subdued in the Gill booth this year. We stopped by nonetheless to see what the company had to show.
	Owner's Turn to go Beast-Mode It can't be easy for terminal tackle companies to continually innovate and develop new product to debut each passing year at ICAST, but Owner managed to address something this year sorely needed by big bait fisherman - larger swimbait hooks!
	New Smoother Braided Lines from Sunline Having nearly exhausted what can be done with fluorocarbon material in fishing lines - at least for now - Sunline turned their attention to some new braided lines this year leveraging a new IZANAS PE material to develop two new eight (8) strand braids.
	Rapala Brands Making Noise at ICAST 2016 Rapala is another company that went relatively low key this year focusing on new colors for existing baits and just a couple of quiet introductions. Here's what we saw at Rapala's booth during ICAST 2016.
	Reaching Optimum Madness in Big Baits! If you've followed our coverage of ICAST in the past, you'll know that while Optimum Bait Company has products under their own name, they are also the distributors of many other popular bait brands including Kahara, Deps, AA Worms, Reins and ima. Keeping the baits and names all straight can be a challenge so this year, we're going to discuss just a few key baits within this large umbrella.
	Hanging Out with Molix When it comes to innovative or just plain interesting product, Molix always has something up their sleeves for us at ICAST. We look forward to visiting with this Italian manufacturer each and every year to get a taste of their unique flair and style. Once again we were not disappointed.
	Pflueger Doubles Down on Value Pflueger's motto has always been to provide solid performing reels at price points that make it easy to adopt their brand. They further their quest in that goal this year with a refinement of their already popular and very value driven spinning reel lineup.
	Simms Takes On The Challenge Of... Everything Each and every year Simms just about overwhelms us with new product. How this manufacturer continues to up their game each and every year is really quite astounding, but of course, many more budget minded anglers dismiss the company right away for the cost of their product. Simms is aware of the grumbling and has a new rain suit that's a bit more affordable than their top end ProDry rainsuit. Let's take a look!
	Denali Doubling Down and Going on the AttaX Denali has slowly and steadily been revamping their rod lineups over the last couple of years. They've continued that trend this year with the refinement of their popular Kovert series of rods and extending their technique specific reach with a series of sticks to support the big bait trend.
	Gliding Along with Lucky Craft USA Keeping things simple this year, Lucky Craft has a single bait debut this year but several new colors extending throughout their existing lineup of baits. Let's take a look.
	The Swiss Army Knife of Emergency Batteries This year, Weego introduced a unit that's more than just an emergency starter battery making it more likely for you to have around when you're in the outdoors.
	G-Rods Looks to Change the Game with Their New Mid-Tier Bass Rods! Perhaps no company made a bigger splash with us at last year's ICAST thank G-Rods International, so we were anxious to see what this relatively new manufacturer had in store for ICAST 2016.
	In Search of Practical or Elite? Abu Has an Answer for Both Seven years ago, at ICAST 2009, Abu Garcia debuted their Vendetta bass rods - a series that would set the tone for others to come in both style and value. This year, they re-imaged this series and introduced a more affordable version of their flagship Fantasista.
	Missile Bait's Offer They're Betting Few Bass Can Refuse We caught up with BASS Elite Series Pro Ish Monroe in the Missile Baits booth to lean what's new with the manufacturer for 2017. For Missile Baits, it's all about that craw.
	New Baits from Megabass Riding their successful introduction of the Levante series of rods last year, Megabass turned their focus to new bait introductions for 2017. We take a look at six baits that are new to the US market, but not necessarily worldwide.
	New Colors and Packable Rain Suits from Huk Gear Thanks to their now signature camouflage pattern licensed from Kryptek, Huk Gear is one of the fastest growing apparel manufacturers in the fishing industry. The combination of aggressive styling, attractive patterns and colors, and garments that are super comfortable to wear has hit an accord with consumers.
	An UltraFast Spincast Reel from Zebco/Quantum With recent, exciting introductions like the EXO and Smoke reels, we never know quite what to expect at Quantum from year to year. This year we were greeted by none other than KVD himself who took the time to walk us through what the company has planned for 2017.
	River2Sea is Going Mad and Doubles Down on the Plopper! We were somewhat disappointed last year to find our friends over at River2Sea had nothing new to share. This year, while the manufacturer did have some new stuff to show us, they still chose to keep things relatively low key with only two new bait introductions and some new colors to be made available throughout their bait lineup.
	Spro's New Spittin' Shad Another booth that's normally hopping with new product introductions is Spro. This year the company extended their topwater offerings with a new, spitting frog and new colors for an established frog bait. They then simply extended the utility of a couple of bait lineups with new colors. Let's take a look.
	Abu Garcia Goes to the Xtreme in Both Weight and Speed The long-standing threshold for a bass-sized low profile baitcasing has been six (6) ounces. Break this threshold and you've entered the realm of highly coveted and often, difficult-to-afford flagship reels. This year, one manufacturer has shattered that barrier by introducing a sub-five ounce (-5oz) reel! Introducing the 4.5 ounce Abu Garcia REVO MGXtreme!
	Jackall of All Trades - New Gantia Swimbaits and Gavacho Popper Frogs Is there any lure category that Jackall can't address? It sure doesn't seem like it as the brand continues to expand their already very robust offering year after year. Fresh off their successful Ganteral Jr. and Rhythm Wave soft swimbait spring launches the team at Jackall surprised us at ICAST with more offers designed to target big and aggressive fish.
	Phenix Goes Back Out on Recon Phenix original Recon and subsequent Recon 2 series of rods are arguably their most popular suite of bass rods, so we were a bit surprised when the company debuted yet another revision to this line at this year's show. Here's a look at the new Recon Elite series of rods from Phenix.
	Old School is New Again with St. Croix's Legend Glass If there's one thing that's been missing in St. Croix's extensive lineup of bass rods, it's a series of rods dedicated to moving baits. This top tier manufacturer addressed that oversight this year at ICAST in a big way. So big, in fact, that they won Best in Show Freshwater rod with their brand new Legend Glass sticks.
	BBB Makes a Bid for the Squad with their Suicide Shad Big Bite Baits is quietly and effectively becoming a huge player in the soft bait market. While the company's Real Deal Shad variations have been a success, what's been missing in their arsenal is a hollow body paddletail swimbait. Enter this year's ICAST introduction, the Suicide Shad.
	They Hybrid Tech Fueling Kistler's Feel n Reel Rod Series How do you breathe new life into an already top selling rod line? If you're Kistler Custom Rods, you introduce a subset of composite blank sticks that answer the call of anglers wanting the versatility of a moving bait stick with the power of a traditional worm and jig rod. Introducing the "Feel and Reel" S2 KLX rods by Kistler.
	Stormr's New Lightweight Garments Protect Anglers From the Sun and Rain STORMR started with neoprene based foul weather gear designed to tackle the toughest conditions including surf and offshore fishing. While those garments were extremely robust they were overkill for certain fishing situations. While there is absolutely a place and time for those jackets and bibs this season Stormr is introduces lighter more packable garments.
	ICAST 2016 New Product Showcase Best of Show Winners! Day two of ICAST is in the books and the New Product Showcase Winners have been announced. It was a great year for Minn Kota, Lew's who won in multiple categories, Pure Fishing who took home top honors in fly and saltwater reels, and Savage Gear won for the third year in a row with their Suicide Duck.
	A Balance Between Form and Function, the Exciting New 13 Fishing Muse Rods 13 Fishing's rod's have always had an edgy feel to them, and even the more affordable rods look and perform like they should be competing in a higher segment. This ICAST the big rod announcement was the introduction of the updated Muse Series, a new lineup that is tailored to offer a balance of form and function at a great price.
	Get Low! Lew's New Super Low Profile (SLP) Series Gets Down Lew's continues to roll out notable new products season after season and this season when it comes to baitcasters that had one goal in mind, to deliver an even lower profile baitcaster. Today at ICAST they introduced the new Super Low Profile (SLP) Series.
	Okuma Uses Advanced Materials to Make the New Helios SX Spinning reels Lighter and Tougher As time goes on reel manufacturers gain access to new technologies and materials so there are more opportunities to make reels not only lighter but more durable, and while it may sound like an oxymoron, that is exactly what Okuma sought to do with the new Helios SX spinning reels.
	Souped up and Ready to Crank, the New 13 Fishing Concept A3 Baitcasters 13 Fishing's Concept baitcasting Series continues to undergo refinement and upgrades each season and this year the company that isn't afraid of taking chances turns things up in a big way when it comes to souped up gearing and drag systems.
	G.Loomis Ushers in the New GLX Rod Series Three letters that every Loomis fan knows� GLX, the rod series that redefined the brand all the way back in 1993. This ICAST G.Loomis introduces the next generation with the introduction of 35 new GLX bass rods, offered in lengths, powers and actions for jig and worm, all-around G. Loomis Mag Bass, spin jig, flip-punch, ShakyHead and drop shot fishing situations.
	It's Getting Hot in Here! Meet the Updated Tatula CT Reels The Daiwa Steez may get all the attention but when it comes to which reel the company sells a whole lot more of we need to turn to the more mainstream oriented workhorse reel known as the Tatula. The Tatula Series has become more refined over time and Type R variants really started to blur the lines between mainstream and premium level performance.
	Going Lighter, Quieter, and More Responsive � Shimano�s New Stradic CI4+ and Metanium MGL In usual Shimano fashion the company made a big splash this ICAST at the new Product Showcase rolling out two new freshwater reels designed to really up the ante in not just performance but ergonomics. These new products included the Stradic CI4+ and the arrival of the ultra-refined Metanium MGL.
	The New Daiwa Steez Gives You Wings A flagship reel should be refined, over engineered, dare I say it...sexy. The Daiwa Steez Series is all of these things and over the seasons the Steez reels have been paired with some of the most premium rods on the market to create some of the lightest combos known to bass anglers. So what's in store for the latest generation of Steez reels? T-Wing.
	Does One Plus One Equal More than Two? Meet the Lunkerhunt "Link" Lunkerhunt has long been known for their realistic looking lures and this ICAST the company is blending that ultra-realistic design with some good old fashioned innovation. Meet the dual bodied "Link" Series which features two lures connected together to create a unique fish attracting topwater action.
	Penn Prepares to Roll out a Brand New Slammer Spinning Reel ICAST 2016 is just a week away and some of the manufacturers are starting to introduce some of their new reels in advance of the show. One such example is the return of the Penn Slammer, a heavy duty spinning reel that is back by popular demand.