With ICAST 2025 registration now open, a sportfishing legend reflects on five decades of trade shows.
From the rafters of the Orange County Convention Center, a white baseball cap with an orange bill stands out from the crowd. Below, a line is snaking around a trade show booth while people wait for their chance to meet the man behind the iconic ball cap—Bill Dance.
For the better part of five decades, Dance has been a superstar in the world of sportfishing. He’s a cross-generational fishing legend that has inspired more anglers to get out on the water since the 1960s. At 84 years old, he’s still going strong and still shaking hands with hundreds of well wishers at ICAST 2024. While most of the 14,000 attendees at ICAST—the world’s largest sportfishing trade show—know Dance like they know how to tie a Palomar knot, many may not realize just how prolific his career in the sportfishing business has been.
Dance has attended every ICAST show. Combined with ICAST’s predecessor, AFTMA, Dance is a trade show veteran of more than 50 years.
In that time, Dance has won Bassmaster Angler of the Year, co-owned Strike King Lure Co., hosted media trips for Creme Lures and voted in the ICAST New Product Showcase as a media member. He has done everything there is to do in sportfishing other than run a tackle shop—though his close friend Johnny Morris could pick up the slack for him there.
Dance knows exactly how attending ICAST can shape a career. “I think someone who has never been there would be floored to walk down the aisles and look at all of the fishing lures, the lines, the hooks, the rods, the reels, the coolers, the graphs, the apparel. It goes on and on.”
On the trade show floor, Dance has made connections that have reshaped his life. He met Darrell Lowrance, Bob Bagley and Cotton Cordell, household names in the marine electronics and fishing tackle businesses. And he developed lifelong relationships that helped him parlay a professional fishing career into one of the most successful media empires sportfishing has ever known.
These days, Dance still films about 40 new television shows each year, and he still boards a plane to Orlando to be at ICAST every July. At ICAST, a full week of activities await people eager to dive deeper into the business of sportfishing. While the show floor is open for three days, breakout events like the Lunkers & Bunkers charity golf scramble, ICAST Cup hosted by Major League Fishing and ICAST On the Water Demo day deliver an entire week of activities for attendees to enjoy.
“It’s something like you’ve never seen before,” adds Dance. “There is so much fishing tackle you’ll be amazed at what you will see. You will see a lot of the new electronics, you’ll see products in a booth beside the people who built them. They tell you how they’re selling, how they’re built and what they do.”
Registration for ICAST 2025 is now open. Last year, almost 14,000 attendees from 75 nations joined Dance in Orlando for a week of productivity, networking and fun. This year, ICAST officials anticipate an even larger crowd. And if you find yourself walking through the show floor, Dance guarantees you’ll see him there.
“I still look at rods, reels, I look at the ratio and feel the weight of the rod and the weight of the reel. It’s a hand touch type thing, where mom and pop business can benefit. Buyers can come in and touch the product and hold the product and see that’s what they will be selling. If you’ve never been to ICAST, I’m telling you now a trip there could change your life.”
To register for ICAST 2025 and save your spot in Orlando July 15-18, visit the ICAST website.
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