Fishing Shows


	Wrapping up our Event Coverage of ICAST 2008 This year, with our manufacturer-centric coverage, the challenge to cover everything that the various brands had to offer was even more daunting but we're determined this time, to leave no stone unturned and so here we bring to you our potpourri article full of miscellaneous reports.
	Xtools debuts a smart mouthed scale and upgraded pliers XTools are well known for their revolutionary floating tools designed for both fresh and saltwater. The company produces a wide assortment of tools from pliers to digital scales, and this ICAST the company debuted new feature rich additions to their collection.
	Gary Yamamoto plans Crappie and Panfish line for October This ICAST Gary Yamamoto was relatively quiet in regards to bass baits, mostly because the company had already debuted new baits earlier this spring. But that didn't mean the brand didn't have something up their sleeves and in just a month Yamamoto will release new baits for Crappie and Panfish.
	Get stung by the Wave Water Scorpion Over the past few years Wave has grown a sizeable following among anglers for their aggressively styled plastics, but this year the company looks to put the sting on the competition with the wild new Water Scorpion.
	Berkley debuts Heavy Weights, HollowBelly, and Crazy Legs Walk up to the Berkley booth and you are sure to see a plethora of new lures from the king of baits. This year the Berkley team continues to build upon their popular Powerbait and Gulp! series baits and one of their new plastics even won the "ICAST Best of Show" in the lure category.
	Fin-Nor introduces a levelwind reel for lighter line applications and a new sailfish rod This year at ICAST the saltwater powerhouse that is Fin-Nor introduced new products for offshore fishing designed by seasoned big game anglers. This season new levelwind reels join the Offshore Casting series reels and a sailfish specific rod is also debuted.
	ima adds features to proven baits and introduces the Big Stik Established in 1998 ima is well known in Japan, and over the last season the brand has become popular among both tournament and weekend anglers. This ICAST ima debuted a number of new lures, as well as added features to their existing popular offerings.
	KVD partners up with Plano for the new XL Gear Bag With popular hybrid bags like the Flipsiders Plano has attracted a much wider range of anglers, and this ICAST the company goes tournament style with the KVD Signature Series XL gear bag.
	Rapala Goes Clackin', Shallow, Deep, and Wide with Their New Lures Rapala, a company well known for its lures is once again releasing baits with elite characteristics. This year they have some modern products such as a lipless crankbait with a built in sound chamber and new variations of the popular X-Rap and DT crankbaits.
	New motion from Maxota Lures Exhibiting a exclusive lure motion that is made possible with the unique tail design the Maxota Struggling Shad will be swimming into new stores soon and mimics crippled and dying minnows.
	Quantum Introduces New Rods Including a Custom Kevin VanDam cranking stick With a full new line of reels Quantum pairs them with new rods from signature series to species specific sticks. This year we saw a new KVD rod designed specifically for cranking and a few other exciting offerings worth exploring.
	New Technical Tools for Advanced Anglers by Berkley Last year Berkley introduced a new set of tools and equipment for the skilled anglers under the TEC tool series. At ICAST this year the company releases new technically advanced gear to expand the line.
	EGO's new Reach and Wade nets It has been a few years since we have looked at an EGO net and during that time the company has taken their well designed floating nets and expanded with new versions for a greater range of applications including wade and crappie fishing.
	Big Bear Fishing Rods Takes a Swipe at the Bass Fishing Market with their New Rod Lineup With the bass fishing rod market already experiencing overflow, the last thing we expected to see at ICAST this year was a brand new company looking to take a piece of the over saturated market, but that is exactly what Big Bear Fishing Rods is trying to do.
	Extending their Tru-Life Lineup with New Hard and Soft Baits, Tru-Tungsten's Lineup for 2009 First stop at Tru-Tungsten was a check and see if the eight inch sized Tru-Life Trout was available and what we found was an entire shelf full of new product to excite us for the 2009 fishing season!
	The Rebirth of Airrus Rods One might think that after the departure of Ken Whiting from Airrus rods about a year and a half ago, that the innovation and forward thinking reputation of the company would go by the wayside. Those assuming this to be inevitable are mistaken.
	Matching the Hatch with Hard Baits, Koppers Live Target Lures Most all of the hardbait manufacturers offer their array of cranks, jerkbaits, and topwaters in a variety of colors meant to mimic local forage, and of course they do this on generic bodies or blanks. Koppers is a new bait company out of Canada taking a new approach to the art of making hardbaits.
	E21 Expands the Carrot Rods and Introduces a New Wind, Rain & Ice Apparel Last year E21 made their debut at ICAST and they swept the show by winning a few ICAST Best of Show awards. This year they did not win any awards for their new rods but did take the Best of Show in Clothing. Let's see what's new for this new and exciting company for 2009.
	Accurate's new Smaller 2 Speed Extreme Reels and Xnergy Rods Survey the top saltwater guides and many will tell you that when it comes to hardcore saltwater tackle nobody does it better than Accurate. This ICAST Accurate introduced their new Boss Extreme 2 Speed reels and Xnergy progressive taper rods.
	Ardent Introduces a Technique Specific Flip-N-Pitch Reel and a Quick and Easy Culling System Ardent reels, known for their U.S. made reels gets innovative this season with the introduction of the unique F500 Flip-N-Pitch casting reel. This reel resembles a formula race car and is built with a singular technique specific purpose. In addition the company introduces the clever "SmartCull" Culling System
	WaveSpin Goes Small to Deliver Big We received all manner of emails from the folks over at WaveSpin after we published our review of their original DH3000 spinning reel. Even Doug Hannon himself took the time to send us a note. So when we walked up to their booth at ICAST this year, H.M. Song, the manufacturing manager at WaveSpin was ready for us.
	Bill Siementel Shares with TackleTour More of His "Secret" Projects! When we stopped by the Spro booth to say hello to our friend Bill Siementel, we didn't really expect to see much other than some promised new colors of the BBZ-1 Trout and of course, the already previewed BBZ-1 Shad, but Bill was so excited to see us, he decided to pull something out of his secret stash...
	Fin-tech takes a SHot at the Title ... This segment lacks the glamour and flash of the baitmaking side, yet it is as essential as the line on your reel. Even still, when you take a close look at what some of the manufacturers are making for this market, you're often left scratching your head wondering why you hadn't been able to find "something like this" sooner.
	Twin Troller boat offers foot control and is an economical option for anglers With the rising costs of fuel smaller more portable electric boats are becoming more and more attractive, and the new Twin Troller offers hands free maneuverability.
	Dobyns Rods Reveals Conservation Series Commemorative Sticks Instead of showing off new rods or talking about what they has planned for the coming year, we met up with founder Gary Dobyns and Tim Cook of Tournament Fish Care Products, State Conservation Director for the Texas BASS Federation Nation, in person, their hopes for the future of America's favorite pass time fishing.
	Castaic ReTools their Rock Hard Series As we approached Castaic Soft Bait's booth at ICAST 2008, Jason Scott could barely contain his excitement to show us what he has planned for the very near future. The acquisition of his company by NatureVision was followed shortly by an investment of over half a million dollars in new tooling and techniques to bring quality baits to the masses.
	Patience can be a Virtue, but Beware Jackall's Poison and new lures Last year, while touring the Jackall booth at ICAST, Curt Arakawa, showed us some sticks that he requested we keep quiet until they were able to finalize some remaining details on how and when to bring them over from Japan. That process took an entire year to complete but now the wait is finally over
	A Truly Exotic Saltwater Spinning Reel, the new ZeeBaaS ZX-2 ZeeBaaS is the creation of the Robert Koelewyn, the designer, engineer, manufacturer of the original Van Staal Saltwater Spinning Reel. This ICAST Robert unveiled the new ZX2 series spinning reel which is designed to simply to be the best reel in the world...
	Enthusiasts Beware There's a New Player In Town: Introducing Damiki Very rarely does a company debut with a complete catalog of product to showcase at this event. Even more rare is such a company debuting with an entire arsenal worthy of consideration by the TackleTour Enthusiast Crowd.
	US Reel puts a new spin on baitcasting with the no eyelet SuperCaster US Reel may be best known for their characteristic large diameter spool spinning reels, but this ICAST what really caught our attention was the introduction of the company's first baitcaster, the SC1000 which is engineered just as inimitable as the company's spinning reels.
	A new tail, bluegill, and upgraded finishes from A.C. Plugs A.C. Plugs has been hard at work refining their lures and introduced a new tail design on their AC Casitas as well as the final production version of their new AC Bluegill.
	A Year of Change on the Horizon For Kistler Custom Rods At a time when more and more companies are sourcing their products overseas to battle the high cost of manufacturing within the United States, Kistler Custom Rods is taking steps to regain control over their brand and product by bringing all aspects of rod design and manufacturing in house.
	For G.Loomis, 2009 is all About Extending the GLX Brand With each passing year, the anticipation mounts as to what G.Loomis will offer in an increasingly crowded market where split rear grip, no foregrip designs have become mainstream. Would this be the year G.Loomis does something to answer their increasingly restless customer base?
	Pflueger improves upon popular models while Shakespeare introduces new reels Continuing with reels that we haven't mentioned yet are a few of the companies that just joined the Pure Fishing family, Pflueger and Shakespeare. Here we'll highlight their most exciting offerings displayed on the show floor.
	Phenix brings in Big Bass and introduces premium Elixir Trout Rods Now Phenix is ready for primetime and delivering their bass rods in quantity and introducing a new premium series of trout rods dubbed the "Elixir" series.
	Matt Servant of Mattlures Gives TT an Exclusive First Look at... We received a phone call from Matt Servant, founder and CEO of Mattlures telling us of a project he had in the works which, with any luck, he was hoping to be able and show us at ICAST 2008. Details were sketchy as he was closely guarding the secrets of his project, but he ensured us it would be something exciting and something no one would expect to see from him.
	Falcon's new Expert series of rods make use of proprietary next-gen CrossMatch graphite Falcon Rods greeted us at the show with a completely revamped Expert Series for the coming season, and along with a new look the rods now make use of a hi-tech matrix of graphite that is designed to make these bass rods stronger, lighter and significantly more sensitive.
	A fusion between tradition and next generation design with the new St. Croix rods This year they are introducing not only new series of rods targeting specific groups of anglers but have done some redesigning to their top of the line Legend Elite series, bringing back the traditional look that many have come to love over the years and making use of their new SC^VI graphite material.
	Abu Garcia and Berkley nails it with new rods and reels (Part 1) Walking up to the Pure Fishing booth this year was almost like walking into a football stadium. That's how huge their combined booths were since their merge with Shakespeare, Pflueger, All-Star, Penn, and X-Tools. In part 1 of the Pure Fishing ICAST article we'll focus on Abu Garcia reels that we haven't already previewed and the all new Berkley rods.
	Shimano redefines the Clarus, Convergence, and Scimitar rod lines Mid way through the season Shimano surprised us with the introduction of their Lucanus system, so it stood to reason that this ICAST the company would focus on freshwater rods. Like the strategy with reels Shimano's rod team refreshed the mid range of their lineup starting with the very rod that put Shimano back into the rod game, the Clarus.
	Enthusiast Style at a Value Driven Price, Okuma Makes a Big Splash at ICAST 2008 What do you do once you’ve been recognized as a value leader in the tackle industry? Well, in the case of Okuma, after winning a Best Value Award in our Swimbait Rod Wars, you up the ante with a new product offering capable of redefining your company’s image from value oriented to innovative and exciting.
	Shimano makes major updates and upgrades throughout their reel lineup It has been a busy season for Shimano and the company updates many of their popular reels with upgraded features and styling. Prior to the show we obtained details of the refreshed Curado E and Citica E baitcasters which focus on increased refinement and improved ergonomics.
	Daiwa Celebrates 50 Years in the Industry by Upping the Ante in the Enthusiast Market A little over a month ago, we brought you the first peak into Daiwa�s 2009 product catalog. Not long after did we got our first up close and personal look at these reels at this year�s ICAST, but we got to see what else is brewing in Daiwa�s 2009 lineup including the long awaited Steez cranking sticks and the unexpected Zillion and Fuego fishing rods!
	New and improved baitcast and spinning reels by Quantum Today Quantum proved they have more up their sleeves. As we walked up to the booth we were greeted by Bob Bagby and he immediately introduced us to all the hot items.
	ICAST 2008, Get Ready for the Show! With ICAST less than 36 away rumors are flying and consumers eagerly await the next generation of new products. Is it going to be a golden year for reels, or perhaps another season of breakout rod offerings, or will swimbaits continue to dominate the lure front?