[CoreyatCastaway]

Wednesday, July 16th-Day 1- First Impressions



We arrived in Vegas at 9:30am (local time) after a 5 hour flight from RDU, with one thing on our minds, tackle touchin! ICAST is the industry's premier trade show. Each July, fishing tackle manufacturers and the like gather in Sin City (Orlando next year) to showcase their newest, brightess, and most innovative products to date. Last year, ICAST07, one product rose above the rest. It was innovative for sure, it was something that no one had ever seen before, and it was a proven winner before it ever made its way to your local tackle shop. It also could be seen from half way across the expansive Las Vegas Convention Center hall. It was the Carrot Stix by E21 rods, a brand new company, with a brand new concept riding the wave of a Classic win by Boyd Duckett. E21 took home two awards last year, Best New Freshwater Rod and Best Overall New Product. Best of the best if you will. One of the most important aspects of ICAST is the New Product Showcase. This showcase is open to buyers and press to review and examine all of the latest endeavors of companies as well known as Shimano to virtually unkowns like E21 last year. Its the big guys and the little guys all thrown in one hat. You get enough votes and BOOM, the little guy is now a big guy too. Companies can be made by winning this showcase. 17 total categories and a best overall category. Here are the products that stood out to us.



These reviews are our personal picks, not the official winners. We will update you with those tomorrow and see how on target we were!



Best New Freshwater Rod- E21 does it again. They are introducing a lineup of new rods that will retail in the $199.99 range. They are called the 21 Carrot Gold Carrot Stix. Offering up 13 casting and 10 spinning, the 21 Carrot Gold series are lighter and stronger than the original LTX carrot stix. They have the most exposed reel seet on the market. They have developed a reel seat that practically doesn't exist which means you hand is in constant contact with the blank and it saves on weight. The 21 Carrot Gold also borrows a popular feature from the Boyd Duckett Signature series, a laser engineered anodized Scandium screw off butt cap with weight port which allows you to perfectly balance your rod be adding weight to the butt section if needed. Boyd Duckett went through these rods with us from butt to tip and I must note that Boyd is a class act. We have had the good fortune to meet him twice now and he has been extremely open to talking and taking the time to really engage us in conversation. Not something you get from alot of the pro's out there. My hat goes of to Boyd and the rest of the E21 gang for yet another great product.



Other rods to mention were the new Zillion and Fuego series from Daiwa, a bunch of changes at Kistler, but in short, they are adding a rod at $99.99 (Carbon Steel), dropping the Magnesium series to $150 and adding an Argon series at $199.99. Also the LTAs are going to a split grip and the LT2 is going to recoil guides. Shimano revamped the Clarus lineup cosmetically. St. Croix has a new series coming out (more to come on that tomorrow).



Best New Freshwater Reel- This one really wasn't too tough for me. Those of you that know me know that I am big on Shimano Curados but like many of you, were not impressed with their last offering which cost $80 more than the classic blue green Curados and just did not seem to perform up to their reputation. Well, let me tell you, Shimano heard our complaints and they have come back with the perfect answer. The new Curado E Series is flat out awesome! I'll have more details tomorrow on this, but basically, added a ball bearing, reduced the overall size and weight (profile and weight of a old 100 series but the capacity of a 200) and, something rarely heard of, the DROPPED THE PRICE! The Curado will now be priced at $179.99, $20 less then its predecessor. For all of that and for the fact the Shimano displayed blantantly that they listened to their customer base and went back to a Curado we all could be proud of, they got our vote. The reel is even a green color which beckons back to the good ol' Curado days! I have not sat down with Shimano yet, so I will give you more details as soon as I do.



Other reels to mention, Daiwa has got several new reels, adding to their very popular Zillion series is a new 7.3:1 gear ratio baitcast reel, they call it the 50 Year Anniversary Hyper Speed Special Edition, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, the new Ultra High Power 4.9:1 Cranking reel. The Zillion series now offers a full range of reels in 4.9, 6.3, 7.1 and 7.3:1 Gear Ratios in both Right and Left handed models. Also from Daiwa is a couple of high speed Steez baitcasters, a new Megaforce Plus twitchin bar reel with 11 BB and swept handle design ($99.99). Also from Daiwa is a new Fuego spinning reel and rod series. More to come on those. Abu added the Skeet Reese series Revo, the Toro extra capacity Revo and a Winch reel, which I have not seen as of yet but I believe is a low speed, high power reel. Ardent also has a prototype reel here that is definately different. It is design strictly for flipping. Some of the unique features are that the level wind is gone, replaced what I could only describe as a cone shaped housing with one stationary opening to feed the line. The spool is also odd in that the middle is much narrower than the edge, keeping all the line towards the middle of the spool, lined up with the stationary feeder. That was probably not the best description, but in a nut shell, the reel is designed to be the perfect flipping reel and all these features reduce friction on the line which allows you to flip or pitch further.



Best New Soft Bait- Lani and I debated this one. In short, in the soft bait category, very few exciting developments, basically alot of companies coming out with paddle tail swimbaits. My vote went to IronClad baits, mainly because I felt like they were the only innovator in the group. I feel like there are other baits that I would personally prefer to use, but based my vote on innovation, as this is a new product showcase. Basically, IronClad baits of soft baits that are a 100 times more durable than traditional plastics. They display their baits by literally hanging a 5lb weight tied to a line tied to a hook in the bait. They are tough cookies. I don't believe their action would be great, but if you want something that will be durable (they say you can avg about 36 fish on one bait), IronClad is the way to go. They had a tube, a stick bait, a finesse worm and a couple other styles that don't currently come to mind. Will it catch on? I think the material is the important piece, I think with some tweaking and a couple of years in the field, something bigger will come of this material. Something that delivers performance and durability. But I could be totally wrong, Lani thinks so!



go to www.castawayfishingsupply.com to see the rest of the day 1 update...