Kayak Fishing and Good Gear at ICAST in Orlando, FL - Part 2
Yesterday I posted my first in a series of ICAST posts. ICAST is the largest sportfishing tradeshow around. Because there is so much to see there, I've started these posts by just doing an overview of what I saw. Later I will go more in-depth with products that are due to arrive in our stores soon. My ICAST recap Part 1 left off with some new Astral offerings. I closed out with a mention of their new sandal line for 2016. They also had a waist belt inflatable PFD in the works that looked pretty good.
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Over at the Jackson Kayak booth, they had some new Orion Cooler colors that looked pretty slick. Orion Coolers have been building some serious momentum in the fishing and hunting industry.
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Jackson Kayak had a RealTree Camo Kilroy and Cuda LT in the booth. Both of these looked great.
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Jackson also debuted the new angling kayak for kids, the Skipper. Jackson Kayak consistently innovates in the kid's kayak category. Proof that they believe in growing the next generation of paddlers.
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Pelican International displayed their newest fishing kayak, the Catch 120. This camp chair seating, standing platform kayak looks to be a solid offering from Pelican. The flame one in the front is the standard option and should retail around $750 and the Angler specific one, in the back, comes in around $899.
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I stopped in at the Diablo Paddlesports booth and saw the Sea Dek padded Chupacabra. The guys had also constructed an aluminum frame that connects to the tracks on your kayak to create a catamaran party barge with a 10 horsepower torqueedo motor. The preliminary name is El Gato.
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The Old Town Canoe & Kayak booth had last year's Best In Show winner, the Predator Minn Kota, in the front of the booth, but I spied a little gem in the background. The Loon Angler is a new sit-inside offering and it looks good.
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The boys at Viking Kayaks/Yak Gear showed off their Pro Model Viking ProFish Reload with Bocagrips, Truth reel and more. It was a sweet package set-up.
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Speaking of Truth Reels, the Virginia crew had it going on. The booth looked great!
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I visited the Eddyline Kayaks booth to peek again at the C 135 Stratofisher. The C135 Yak Attack Edition, comes with a custom BlackPak and many more goodies, won Best Boat and Best in Show at this year's ICAST. Pretty cool for this first time exhibitor. This was the second year in a row that a kayak won Best in Show. Kayak Fishing is making waves.
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ICAST is a fisherman/ gear junkies paradise. It's the next best thing to catching fish. This was my second year at ICAST and it's cool to see kayak fishing garnering so much attention. Everywhere you turn at this event people are talking about it. I had a couple of professional bass anglers come up and talk about getting into a kayak, and ask for advice.
It's an amazing time in kayak angling. This growth will come with some pain, we see it already, but if anything, ICAST reminds me that we're all in this big roller-coaster ride together. Kayak fishing will branch out into little subsets. People will have different ideas about what's good and what's bad. It's ok. You don't have to like everything. And you don't have to complain about anything. All you have to do is remember to have some fun. That is the draw. That's why we all got into this lifestyle, and that pursuit of fun is what's driving this growth.
I had a blast hanging with the tribe in Orlando. We're all a big family and it was good to reconnect and meet up with so many from across the country.
I'll post the rest of my ICAST photos on our Facebook page later today. And in the coming weeks I'll highlight certain things I've over-viewed in these posts and go a little more in-depth on them.