This might surprise you, but the 2024 ICAST show in Orlando Florida was my first-ever trip to the landmark event. I’ll be honest with you, I’m just not one of those people that loves to travel and I was always happy to pass on the opportunity to go, simply to avoid the stress and inconvenience of traveling there. After 17 years working in the industry as a writer and editor, it was time.
As it turned out, I had built the stress and inconvenience of traveling way up in my head, and it really wasn’t that bad. For the ride down I strategically chose an aisle seat in an empty row of three, another solo traveler picked the window seat and we had an empty one between us. She was a perfectly pleasant person and we shared the extra space to store our belongings, while I watched reruns of Frasier – which, for me, is the true definition of comfort TV.
After a quick Uber ride, I was immersed in the ‘On Water’ showcase, an outdoor event that kicks off ICAST each year. Within just a few minutes it was apparent that I was among ‘my people’ even seeing some familiar faces from back home and some others, like Ish Monroe, that I had only seen on TV, pretty cool. From there we walked into the Pure Fishing Press Conference, a showcase of new items from Pure Fishing mixed with a full-on party atmosphere, complete with hors d’oeuvres, free swag and an open bar. Then we entered the ‘New Product Showcase’ which I was allowed to vote upon thanks to my ‘press level’ badge status. Literally thousands of new products spanning fly fishing to apparel, kayaks to electronics, hard baits to soft baits and rods to reels… plus more.
As we perused the show over the subsequent days, the thing that really stood out in front of everything else, was how much money is budgeted for this event. It seems that there is a bit of an unspoken competition between all of the biggest names in the biz, to throw the best party, build the best booth and impress the masses. At 4 p.m. each day, the atmosphere rapidly changes from sales pitches, video cameras, demonstrations and talking heads to full-on happy hour, complete with sushi bars, finger foods, drinks of all kinds, live music and lots of happy, celebrating people.
We’ve all been to fishing shows, with row after row of 10- and 20-foot booths laid out like neighborhoods drawn by a civil engineer whose only tools were a ruler and pencil; ICAST is not like this. The booths resemble open-air showrooms, it’s like a super mall for fishermen. Each manufacturer seems to embrace the idea that their booth at ICAST is an opportunity to tune their visitors in to the lifestyle they want associated with their brand. And, I have to say, it really adds something to the show and it gives the consumer an opportunity to – sort of – find where they fit in.
Some booths have high-tech lighting, plush carpeting and sleek displays staffed with an army of pros and salesmen, dressed to impress. Others are more casual, with pro anglers in shorts and flip-flops talking each customer through the products on display. Some featured passionate lure designers swimming their creations in giant clear tanks and others put the product engineers out front who were eager to share inside info on how and why different rod, reel, boat or electronic features were added or achieved. I think that was the main thing for me, the number of passionate anglers, designers and engineers in that place really made a lure geek like me feel at home.
Whether it was talking swimbait strategies with BBZ designer Bill Siemantel or trying to work out the perfect profile for a bigger spook with Yo-Zuri VP of Marketing Chris Bishop, I was really in my element and I enjoyed every minute. Sometimes we find ourselves in our own little bubbles and we look around at ‘non-fishing’ people that we know in everyday life, and the way they just can’t understand our level of obsession and dedication to what amounts to a simple hobby. One lap around the show floor at ICAST will show you that we are the lucky ones, we’re among a unique class of people who are united in an unpolarizing bond. And I interpret the party atmosphere that seasons the ICAST experience as a celebration of that fact. Strike up a conversation with an angler from Maine, Alabama, Alaska or Minnesota and their passion for the sport will always lead the way. And I love that.
