Top 5 Reasons for Manufacturers to be at ICAST

The world’s largest sportfishing trade show is well worth the trip

It’s early summer and the American Sportfishing Association offices on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. are humming with the din of discourse of fisheries across the United States. Fighting the Pebble Mine Bristol Bay, stopping the spread of aquatic invasive species, and reauthorizing the National Fish Habitat Partnership are all top of mind. As are rockfish projects in California, striped bass fisheries in New England and vessel speed restrictions in the Gulf of Mexico.

The thread of America’s fisheries is weaved into the fabric of the ASA—an organization tasked with protecting access and providing clean water for the country’s $148 billion sportfishing industry. But as summer comes into view, no topic looms as large as ICAST.

Last year, more than 13,000 attendees representing nearly every conceivable fishery in North America descended on Orlando’s Orange County Convention for ICAST. Delegates from dozens of global fisheries joined them, too. The collection makes ICAST the world’s largest sportfishing trade show, a can’t-miss opportunity for any business serious about sportfishing.

But what goes on there? And what continues to draw thousands of people back to Florida in the middle of the summer?

Meeting the Best Buyers

St. Croix Rods Director of Marketing Jesse Simpkins has been attending ICAST for more than two decades. As a manufacturer, an ASA board member and the brother of a Montana fly fishing guide, Simpkins has a complete picture of the impact of ICAST from the water to the production floor. “ICAST is foundational for me as an angler, because I want to catch fish,” Simpkins says. “But it’s even more foundational for me as a business person to ensure the health of the resources we have and to ensure access to those resources is being protected.”

Simpkins says the product development teams at St. Croix Rods operate with ICAST as a year-round goal. Product cycles are designed for launch at the show, where they’ll generate the most impact among media members and buyers. “To use a hunting analogy, if you’re hunting the biggest game, you want to be in the field that game is in. At ICAST, all of the biggest buyers are there. The very largest buyers are there. The specialty shop buyers are there. The best independent dealers are there. So if you want the opportunity to showcase your products and who you are as a company, ICAST is a great place to do it.”

Expanding Industry Knowledge

Rob Southwick’s name has become synonymous with industry insight since founding outdoor industry research firm Southwick Associates in 1990. For more than 30 years, he’s helped manufacturers and retailers better understand the trends impacting consumers in sportfishing. And each year, Southwick is a featured speaker at ICAST’s series of education seminars, dubbed Lunch & Learn.

“There’s so much more you can learn at the show, besides which products should be offering,” says Southwick. “There’s insight to be gained on how to better run your business, how to better service the customer and how to better understand the customer. At ICAST, you gain more of the knowledge you need to really know what to offer as a business.”

Last year, Southwick’s industry analysis was joined by other seminars like a social media panel, a breakdown of the future of artificial intelligence in fishing and an annual breakdown of how federal excise taxes are impacting the sport.

Cultivating New Ideas

KastKing CEO Tate Cui says his team uses ICAST for product inspiration. With hundreds of other manufacturers lining the aisles and thousands of attendees roaming from booth to booth, the show is a melting pot of concepts and theories from across the world of fishing. “This is a big industry that has been booming,” ads Cui. “New ideas drive it. So, we try to find ideas we can learn from. There are always new ideas that we can learn from each other and from the audience at ICAST. It’s a valuable tool.”

Marketing Boost

Each year, the brightest spotlights in sportfishing’s media descend on ICAST. Freshwater and saltwater. Conventional and fly. Endemic and non endemic media can all be found sauntering the aisles, usually with content teams on-site. Those spotlights focus intently on the ICAST New Product Showcase, an acclaimed competition where retailers and media members vote for the best new products each year.

This year, products will compete in 41 categories for a chance to go head-to-head for ICAST Best of Show. And while each category win comes with a trophy and bragging rights, Best of Show has the ability to catapult an entire company. In 2022, startup company PacBak won Overall Best of Show and leapfrogged from a startup phase to placement in more than 50 retail stores within months.

When ICAST winners do hit store shelves, they tend to gain attention. “Shoppers are paying attention to who wins ICAST Best of Show,” says Hadrell’s Point Tackle and Supply co-owner Michael Able, Jr. “Whether it’s the top rod, the top reel or the top lure, it can set products apart for customers.”

Building Lasting Relationships

Tackle Direct CEO Patrick Gill, whose New Jersey-based dealership stocks around 100,000 SKUs, says ICAST is the place to go to expand connections in the fishing industry. “When you’re on Zoom or a conference call, you usually have a set agenda,” Gill says “At ICAST, it’s different. When you bump into somebody on the show floor or meet them casually over a beer, you get to know them more. There are people at these shows that my family and I have known for 20 years, because it goes a lot further than just the product or the business deal.”

ICAST features a week’s worth of events specifically designed to help business leaders connect with others in the industries From activities like ICAST On the Water Demo Day—which puts new products directly into the hands of dealers in the field—to breakout seminars like those hosted by Southwick, the show leaves plenty of room to balance the business side of fishing with social time in Orlando.