The International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades was held last month in Orlando Florida. ICAST is designed to showcase the latest products in the fishing industry. Each year ICAST recognizes the best new fishing products in multiple categories. Voted on by attending product buyers and members of the sportfishing media, these “Best of Category” awards represent the pinnacle of achievement in the fishing tackle industry and are fiercely competitive.

I have been fortunate enough to land a few of the new award-winning fishing rods, reel and baits that will no doubt take the fishing world by storm.

Legendary investor Warren Buffett — the “Oracle of Omaha” — famously said that it is wise for investors to be “fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” Applied to the fishing industry, it means when global challenges cause many manufacturers to shut down the innovation and new products, a few visionary companies wisely invest in the future. DAIWA is one of those investors.

The newest of high-end freshwater and inshore spinning reels, is Daiwa’s brilliantly designed EXIST. Style, innovation, research and passion come together in the birth of the new EXIST. What is inarguably the finest spinning reel in EXISTence, features all exclusive technologies you’d come to expect from a DAIWA flagship product. Adjectives fail to describe the experience of using this reel on the water; it’s beyond smooth with the best drag conceivable and construction that will last a lifetime and beyond.

Surprisingly lightweight yet exceptionally powerful, with the Free Swimmer featuring an Automatic Bite N’ Run clutch at the base of the body, allows anglers to instantly disengage the spool so the line can peel off with little or no resistance while the bail is closed. Simply pull down on the lever to place the reel in free-spool mode and flip it back to instantly to re-engage when a fish grabs your bait. A small tension control knob at the back of the reel makes it easy to adjust spool tension to control the speed at which line plays out.

The 5-inch NEKO CRAWLER hybridizes Daiwa’s NEKO FAT and NEKO STRAIGHT, stealing key elements of each to create the alpha of NEKO baits. Its outwardly simple profile is infused with technology and intelligence. For starters, the NEKO CRAWLER is masterminded with legendary Yamamoto knowhow for more wiggle. That special trembling action that drives bass bonkers. Also, the NEKO CRAWLER features a wide diameter nose, providing added surface for inserting NEKO weights — from drywall screws to specialty weights. Thirdly, Yamamoto’s inventiveness produced a buoyant soft plastic, allowing the bait to stand straight on the bottom for easy slurping.

It’s a shad-bait unlike anything on the market. A brand-new take on the shad-profile crankbait design like a lot of Ever Green’s other cutting-edge baits, the XV-5 finds its origin on pressure. The lure is sure to please the most discerning anglers looking for that perfect cross between crankbait and jerkbait to shad-infested waters. The bait does not feature a knocker or internal rattle, which is also a plus for targeting clear, water pressured fish. The tight wobble produces all the vibration and sound necessary to draw the lateral line detection of bass, stripers, wipers, white bass, walleyes, and trout.

Daiwa’s new bait organizer looks like an attache case, with folder design with an easy-to-carry handle and narrow profile that will slip anywhere on the boat. The overarching design itself is fold-over with a clip to keep all jigs secured and in place. In terms of construction, the Daiwa Primal Jig Binder features a unique design that makes retrieving jigs and rigging essentials from the interior elementary. The front is easy to open via one simple, resilient clip that exposes both sides of the binder for instant access. It features 10 Isinglass compartments that makes sliding in and retrieving treble-hooked jigs a breeze and on the opposite side, 10 compartments for slow-pitch jigs and knife jigs. The back of the Daiwa Primal Jig Binder also features two rigging compartments where you can keep leader material, tools, and other fishing essentials.

The Park Falls, Wisconsin company, St. Croix, is a 74-year-old family-owned American company that took Best of Category honors in the Freshwater Rod category of the ICAST 2022 New Product Showcase Awards for its three all-new Legend Tournament Bass GRASP swimbait models.

“We’re humbled and honored that those industry professionals who report on or sell fishing tackle for a living selected Legend Tournament Bass GRASP as the best new freshwater rod amidst a packed category, which included 34 other significant new rods from other manufacturers,” says St. Croix CEO Scott Forristall. “St. Croix is built top to bottom to seek out, understand and serve the needs of anglers; it’s what drives each one of our St. Croix team members every day, so everyone in the St. Croix family feels great pride and a real sense of gratitude for this recognition. Ultimately though, this award is for every angler around the globe who takes as much pride in using a St. Croix fishing rod as we feel in making them. It’s also for our retail partners who are on the front lines of helping anglers choose the Best Rods on Earth to meet their specific angling needs and objectives.”

The trio of all-new Legend Tournament Bass swimbait models featuring St. Croix’s proprietary GRASP reel seat firmly establishes a new standard in heavy-bass-lure rod design and performance. Designed to excel in the presentation of swimbaits and Alabama rigs from § to 8 ounces, these three all-new swimbait rods bring the newly reimagined Legend Tournament Bass Series to an expansive total of 27 distinct technique-specific high-performance models for the benefit of bass anglers worldwide.

New Legend Tournament Bass swimbait models have the distinction of being the first-ever contemporary St. Croix rods released with proprietary St. Croix-designed componentry, in this case, the all-new St. Croix GRASP real seat.

“The angler-requested St. Croix GRASP reel seat helps give anglers the upper hand by delivering superior ergonomic control of Legend Tournament Bass swimbait rods during the cast, retrieve, and throughout fight,” St. Croix Brand Manager, Ryan Teach shared with us. GRASP effectively combats the hand and wrist fatigue that commonly sets in when casting and retrieving heavy lures and doing battle with large, powerful fish. GRASP accomplishes this by always keeping the wrist properly aligned while affording the most comfortable and efficient grip on the rod and casting reel straight and in line with the rod in the ultimate palming position, not canted back or forward which commonly happens with traditional casting-rod grips. The result is total control over rod and fish, with less fatigue so anglers can fish longer, harder, and earn more success.

In addition to GRASP’s ergonomic design, its angler interface is sweetened with an extremely durable and tactile SoftTouch coating.

“The selection of the proper coating took years of discovery and trial and error, and it’s a big part of what makes GRASP distinct in the marketplace,” Teach says. “The SoftTouch coating we landed on is just as important as the refined geometries that make GRASP a complete and unique design. It is incredibly resilient yet remains slightly tacky when wet.”

New Legend Tournament GRASP swimbait models will be available to anglers at St. Croix dealers worldwide in October. All 24 other new Legend Tournament Bass models which were announced earlier this year at the 2022 Bassmaster Classic are available right now.

New Legend Tournament Bass rods feature markedly lighter and stronger next-generation hybrid SCIV+ carbon fiber blanks. Select reaction bait models feature all-new iACT Glass hybrid blanks. In addition to their unique combinations of proprietary materials, all-new Legend Tournament Bass rods also incorporate all of St. Croix’s top technologies and premium components.

While every new Legend Tournament Bass rod is special and distinct, the three iACT Glass models are specifically engineered for hardbait applications like crankbaits and chatterbaits. They represent an even greater technological achievement for anglers. “These rods introduce a third material – our linear S-Glass to the hybrid SCIV+ blank to produce rods with the softer actions’ reaction presentations demand. The combination iACT Glass — it stands for Internally Active — and it allows St. Croix to deliver those slower, parabolic actions while maintaining peak sensitivity in a blank that’s significantly smaller in diameter and lighter than a pure glass cranking rod.

Falk wants to remind anglers that these are not “composite” rods.

“All three materials in Legend Tournament Bass iACT Glass models — SCIV carbon, SCVI carbon, and Linear S-Glass — are individually patterned and laid up to spec, then all rolled together,” he says, emphasizing that each of the materials are distinct, and adding that Legend Tournament Bass iACT Glass models are the first carbon/glass hybrid rods ever to be rolled on St. Croix IPC mandrels.

These three iACT Glass models deliver everything anglers have asked for in a reaction-bait rod and more.

“You can even walk a topwater with complete control using one of these Legend Tournament Bass iACT rods,” he says. “That’s not something typically thought to be possible with a rod that has any type of glass in it. You can walk these baits with precision and never even think you have a glass rod in your hands until you’ve hooked up on a fish and the benefits of that moderate, parabolic action kick in. St. Croix is the only company I’m aware of that’s been able to do this.”

Bassmaster Elite angler, Bob Downey said, “I was very impressed with the lighter weights and significantly reduced blank diameters of these new Legend Tournament Bass iACT rods when compared to a pure glass cranking rod. I’m not aware of anything else remotely like these rods on the market and I found their overall performance with chatterbaits and crankbaits to be in a class all their own.”

MLF angler and crankbait master Jesse Wiggins agrees. “I’ve always been a huge fan of St. Croix’s Legend Glass rods and I still am, but these new blue iACT rods have really impressed me, especially in any cranking situation where you need that extra bit of sensitivity.”

Despite the improvements, some things will stay the same. The new Legend Tournament Bass rods remain handcrafted in Park Falls, Wisconsin with a 15-year transferable warranty backed by St. Croix Superstar Service. They also retain their iconic Tournament Blue Pearl color.