Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Tackle Show Only a Week Away

Wow. This time next week, I'll be traveling toward Las Vegas for the ICAST Show. I'm admittedly not a fan of Las Vegas, but I really enjoy the show, where a massive convention center floor is completely covered by fishing tackle manufacturers' booths. It's where the companies that make the rods and reels, the lures, the waders, the hooks, the sonar units... you name it -- gather each summer to show all their new stuff to wholesalers and to retailers from all over the world and to the fishing media. For most companies, it's the first showing of the following year's product introductions.

To a dedicated fisherman, it's like the world's largest candy store, and for a fishing writer, ICAST represents a tremendous opportunity to gather with the whole industry in a single place and to learn about all the cool, new stuff that companies are producing and to see industry trends. Things kick off Tuesday evening with a special preview of the New Product Showcase, which is a dedicated space where companies display the best of the best of their newest stuff. Of course, there also will be all sorts of pros and guide roaming the show floor and working sponsors' booths.

This year's show will be even better than normal, from my perspective, because the International Fly Tackle Dealer show will run concurrent with ICAST and use the same convention center. I don't do quite enough fly stuff to ever justify the traveling to just the IFTD show, which is the fly world's equivalent to ICAST, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the fly tackle too and meeting more folks on that side of the business.

Watch this blog, my Twitter feed, my facebook fishing page and my YouTube Channel for a steady flow of photos, videos and notes about stuff I see and things I learn from the pros.

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