After two days of pre-show activities, the show floor of the world’s largest sportfishing trade show opens today.
48 hours after ICAST attendees began streaming into the Magic City, the biggest buying event in recreational fishing is primed for its most successful year since the pre-pandemic era. While show doors don’t officially open until 9:00 a.m., two days full of pre-show activities already have ICAST in full swing.
On Monday morning, a light breeze and cloud cover kept ICAST attendees comfortable on the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links as nearly 100 golfers and anglers swung drivers and fishing rods at the kickoff event for ICAST 2026. Now in its third year, the Lunkers and Bunkers charity golf scramble has blossomed into a travel-worthy event drawing in participants from around the sportfishing universe who arrive early in Orlando to spend quality time with industry peers.
“The course is gorgeous,” said Bruce Kowalski of New York’s TAAR Outdoors. “It’s our first year here at ICAST, and we really want to see what new products are coming out, network with a lot of people in the industry and see what is up on the horizon.” The event included 96 golfers and raised more than $35,000 for Keep America Fishing, the advocacy arm of the American Sportfishing Association, which serves to protect angler access and rally support for the sportfishing industry among policymakers.
A Stacked Super Tuesday
On Tuesday, July 14th, ICAST festivities began to elevate to a fever pitch as blastoff for the ICAST CUP presented by Major League Fishing saw bass anglers hurtling across a mirror-like Lake Toho for the Major League Fishing-sponsored pro-am bass tournament. For the first time, the ICAST Cup was scored using Bass Pro Tour event rules. All fish over two pounds were scored and immediately released in an effort to prioritize fish care.
In just four hours of fishing, Team Lithium Battery Power—Dylan Quilatan, Don Mitchell and Diane Cobbs—took home the coveted Cup with an unprecedented 18-fish weight of 96lbs 10oz, including a monster 8lb 9oz big bass. “We caught over 96 pounds in the past four hours,” said Quilatan.” Every fish counts. It seemed like every 30 minutes we got a five to eight pounder, so that ended up working out.”
The 37 boat tournament raised $7,000 for Keep America Fishing.
On The Water Brings ICAST to Life
As the ICAST Cup drew to a close on Lake Toho, excitement was palpable outside of the Orange County Convention Center, where a pop-up village of dozens of ICAST exhibitors sprung up along the shores of a palm-lined pond for ICAST On the Water presented by Garmin. Now in its 11th season, ICAST On the Water sponsored by Garmin seemed to be larger than ever as a swarm of kayaks, a fully-rigged bass boat and other experimental watercraft formed a moving backdrop of miniature wakes for the shoreline event.
This outdoor hub offered attendees the opportunity to cast, paddle and test new products under real world conditions outside of the confines of the convention space itself. “When ICAST On the Water started, there were just a few tables and us,” said Dave Dunn, Senior Director of Marine & RV Sales for the event’s title sponsor. “Look where it is now. We have a fully-fledged event with extra vendors, tons of tents and kayaks all over the water. It’s awesome to see this.”
Dunn said Garmin chose ICAST On the Water to launch a new flagship product by putting it in the hands of buyers and media members in a real-world environment. “Manufacturers are gravitating to this and using it as an opportunity to demo their products so people get that hands-on experience.”
Meet the Market Hits the Mark
As ICAST On the Water wrapped up, retailer buyers gravitated inside the Orange County Convention Center to rendezvous with manufacturers in a pre-show speed dating event called Meet the Market sponsored by KastKing. Joe’s Sporting Goods buyer Sean Lofgren traveled from St. Cloud, Minnesota to attend the inaugural “speed dating” event for tackle buyers. Meet the Market matched buyers to manufacturers for 12-minute meetings that set the stage for more business to be conducted on the ICAST show floor.
Exhibitors shuffled between buyers spread across more than 50 stations inside of a breakout room in the Orange County Convention Center to make new connections. “We’re meeting with companies that we would not ordinarily sought out,” said Lofgren. “It’s a great opportunity to meet somebody that might be a niche product in our store that does well and brings people into the store.”
Across the room, former Shark Tank contestant Crystal Lugo returned to ICAST after a one-year hiatus to dial in production for her homegrown fish scaling device. “We need to do this all of the time,” said Glove Scaler founder Crystal Lugo. “Waiting on a buyer to come by the booth is fine but being able to sit down and start conversations is incredibly beneficial. This is amazing.”
A Reimagined New Product Showcase Debuts
New products may be the stars of ICAST, but this year, a fully-renovated New Product Showcase area is stealing some of that shine for the event space hosting more than 850 brand new products on the show floor.
On Tuesday evening, hundreds of buyers and media members converged on the resplendent, modernized ICAST New Product Showcase for a preview reception hosted by the event sponsor, Fishing Tackle Retailer. Inside this special area of the ICAST Show Floor, new products—ranging from terminal tackle and artificial baits to watercraft, marine electronics and apparel—made their debut as registered attendees voted for the best of the best to receive ICAST Best of Category Awards.
Voting for the Best of Category Awards continues until Wednesday afternoon and takes center stage on Wednesday evening at the New Product Showcase Best of Show Reception.
ICAST 2026 continues on Wednesday with the State of the Industry Breakfast, American Sportfishing Association Impact Award Ceremony and the official opening of the show floor to all attendees at 9:00 a.m.
Keeping Up with ICAST
ICAST can be found on social media at: Facebook – @icastfishing – Instagram – @icastshow and X – @ICASTshow. When posting, use hashtags: #ICAST2026 #ICASTshow #ICAST
Thank You ICAST 2026 Sponsors!
ASA extends our sincere thanks and appreciation to our members for their generous support of ICAST 2026:
Platinum: Fishbrain | Florida’s Coastal Corridor | HUK
KastKing | Rather Outdoors | Fishing Tackle Retailer
Wired2Fish | Yamaha
Gold: Coastal Conservation Association, Garmin, G-Ratt Baits, Major League Fishing, Seaguar, Turtlebox, Under Armour, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Waypoint TV
Silver: Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, Columbia PFG, Costa, Daiwa, Field Ethos Journal, Fly Fishing Film Tour, SheFish, Strike, Yeti
Bronze: Bates Fishing Co., Bubba, Cling, FisheWear, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, FluxJet, Hook & Tackle, Island Optics, Matrix Capital Markets Group, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Salty Crew
Supporting Sponsors: AFTCO, Crocodile Bay Sportfishing & Expeditions, Danforth, EZ Dock, Marsh Wear, Outdoor Cap, Outdoor Sportsman Group, Power-Pole, Sportfishing Championship Series, Smith Optics
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