'On the Water' Demos Headline Super Tuesday at ICAST

It’s called Super Tuesday, the day that unofficially kicks off the midsummer ICAST fishing trade show every year in Orlando.

The day is a busy one indeed, beginning at O’ Dark Thirty as anglers gather for the ICAST Cup 2024 fishing tournament, which launched at dawn on Tuesday morning, July 16, 2024 at  Lake Toho in Kissimmee, Fla. just south or Orlando. As the sun rose over the Florida countryside, the annual celebrity/industry/media bass tournament put on by Major League Fishing was underway and so too was the 67th annual International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades (ICAST) Show.

As the Florida heat gathered steam, the event’s weigh-in took place at 10:30 a.m. at Big Toho Marina with a total of 36 teams participating. Every team weighed  a fish, some had pros like Shaw Grigsby and Randall Tharp aboard the bass rig, and a great time was had by all. When the weigh-in smoke had cleared, the CPF Lures team of Jason George and Chuck Pippin had claimed the first-place trophy with a three-fish limit weighing 15 pounds, 7 ounces, along with a sizable bass tipping the scales at 5-7.

As the day continued, there were a variety of press conferences to introduce new products, the New Product Showcase reception in the evening to usher in voting by media and buyers for the year’s best new products, and a wide array of dinners and receptions.

In other words, unofficially or not, ICAST 2024 is now underway.

For many attending ICAST, the highlight of the day, however, was the “On the Water Day” that is held at a sizable pond on the north side of the Orange County Convention Center. And after a record-setting effort last year, there was a similar-sized crowd and more booths giving away hats, decals, literature and more.

On the water, there was a slew of new kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, and even a Hewes flats skiff showing off new electronics from Garmin.

Most importantly, on a typical midsummer day in central Florida where the humidity was high, the temperature was climbing quickly, and the beginnings of this afternoon’s thunderstorms were beginning to bubble up in the sky, was the refreshments. From my vantage point, the red, white and blue bomb pop popsicles given out by Pure Fishing and the fresh redfish ceviche given out by the host American Sportfishing Association were clear winners.

For Capt. Blaine Anderson, a Connecticut transplant now living in South Carolina and the Shimano saltwater product marketing manager, ICAST isn’t about bass tournaments and refreshments, it’s all about the new gear. Because despite the heat and humidity of a Florida summer, it reminds him of home and the sport he loves so much out on the inshore and offshore waters of the Atlantic. Besides, the warm weather isn’t that much different than the conditions he typically encounters back home in the Palmetto State, anyway.

And if it’s going to be a bit steamy outside, best be either fishing or talking about fishing, right?

“It really is about all of the new products that we’re launching,” said Anderson. “We have two launch cycles typically in a year, one of which is here at ICAST. And it gives us the ability to interact with members of the media and with our dealers, and have them actually look at and feel the gear here, put it in their hands, let them cast it, let them reel it, show them the new colors, and how things work.

“It’s just a great hands on event versus being in the booth and not being to interact as much with the products,” he added.

What constitutes a good “On the Water Day” for a company like Shimano, a world-wide leader in freshwater and saltwater rods, reels and gear, and winner of the ICAST Best of Show award several times down through the years?

“Well, I was actually talking about that just a minute ago with a couple of our pros,” said Anderson. “It seems, although it’s unusually warm here this morning, (that) it’s been pretty busy with a steady stream of traffic. And like I said, it’s about putting the gear in people’s hands, so I look at it (success) as the total of people interacting with it (gear). That’s how I measure it.”

That success, however, does necessitate a little bit of thought and planning in the months leading up to ICAST. Fortunately, Anderson said that the “On the Water Day” component isn’t too difficult.

“It is just an overall component of the entire show for us,” he said. “But we start out preparation, getting down into the nitty gritty of planning, probably six months in advance. But the ASA (American Sportfishing Association) and ICAST here really kind of make the ‘On the Water’ portion of it kind of easy with the booth layout. They ask us how many spaces we want, we get one per brand, and then it’s up to us to decide what product we’re going to bring and what the story is behind that product. It’s really pretty easy, all in all.”

While the goal of “On the Water” is to get new product into the hands of buyers and media who will be writing and producing video content about it, the ultimate desire is to get it into the hands of consumers down the road.

“(Yes), 100 percent,” said Anderson. “But being able to tell the technology story behind the new product is very important. Just because we’ve come out with the new rod, the new reel, if we can’t tell the dealers, the consumers what it does for them on the water, it just doesn’t move. We need to tell that story and that’s part of being here.”

Since ICAST is an annual event, few successful companies like Shimano show up in Florida each July without something new to show off. But then again, for those same companies, figuring out what to develop each year isn’t all that difficult either.

In other words, it’s not really reinventing the wheel as much as it is paying attention to what customers want and need.

“Well, it’s really listening to the market, listening to the consumer’s needs, and always trying to innovate always,” said Anderson. “Take for example our spinning reels, where we’re basically on a three-year cycle where every three years, as technology improves, if we can make it bigger, we’re going to make  it bigger and better. And then, trickle that technology down into the lower price points.

“So, we’re always trying to improve at the top and then trickle that stuff down.”

While bass fishing and freshwater fishing in general might make up the bulk of the ICAST show floor each year, there’s also plenty of saltwater gear too. For starters, Florida is filled with big largemouth bass, yes, but there’s saltwater in all directions form Orlando but due north. And there’s plenty more salty water elsewhere in the U.S. on both the Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, along with the nearby Gulf Coast.

Anderson is a saltwater expert himself, in terms of both the fishing—his Instagram account confirms that with photos of everything from stripers near his Connecticut roots to redfish in the Carolina Low Country to even big bluefin tuna—and the business.

And from where he sits, Anderson says that Shimano definitely excels on both sides of the ledger, in freshwater and saltwater.

But then again, so do many of the Shimano dealers, some of whom were at “On the Water Day.” And that’s understandable given the location and the fact that as much as 80 percent of Shimano’s saltwater business takes place on the Eastern side of the country according to Anderson.

He also thinks there’s definitely a plus for his side of the business if he can get a dealer to check out the new saltwater gear, even if they aren’t actually on the coast itself.

“Obviously, the freshwater and saltwater products are very different, and the techniques are very different, but in lot of cases, our dealers are the same,” said Anderson. “We’ve got a lot of them that have crossover (markets), up and down the Eastern Seaboard, down to the Gulf Coast, and over to Texas. A lot of these dealers within 200 miles of the coast serve both the freshwater and saltwater angler.”

Anderson says that while freshwater and saltwater techniques are different, there’s sometimes more of a crossover between the gear and the technological advancements that Shimano makes.

“On the rods, a lot of it (technology), a lot of it (crosses over into each market),” he said. “On the reels, not so much.”

So with all of that in mind, I then asked Anderson what’s new for Shimano’s saltwater gear in 2024?

“On the rod side, we’ve got two big new product introductions,” he said. “There is a total redesign of the OCEA Plugger Full Throttle, which is kind of a jig and pop rod meant for bigger tuna, bigger pelagics. We’ve got the OCEA Jigger Infinity Motive, a slower series of rods, our flagship. Top of the line technology in both of those rod series.

“On the reel side, we’ve got new sizes of the Talica 20 and 25,” he added. “It’s been redone, where we introduced the 12 and 16 last year, this year it’s now the 20 and 25. We’ve also got the OCEA Jigger Lever Drag (LD), which designed for slow pitch jigging to go along with the Infinity Motive rods. In addition to that, we’ve got some new jig colors, new lure colors.”

And Anderson noted with a wry grin that while that’s a fair amount of new product for his saltwater side of the Shimano product lineup for 2024, there’s even more in the way of new products for the freshwater side of Shimano.

But that’s another story, and perhaps one worth pursuing on Wednesday when the show is actually and officially open for business. For now, the “On the Water Day” glimpse on the saltwater side of the ledger would have to do for yours truly.

I guess I can wait, although I do wonder if there are any more of those Bomb Pops left. It’s hot and I’m thirsty, but at least ICAST 2024 is now unofficially underway and its great to be here once again.

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