We are back in the hotel rooms and pounding out more articles but here’s a quick highlight of what we thought stood out the most in Day 2 of ICAST.

St Croix – Avid Pearl – Rods for lady anglers. Great rods!

Abu Garcia – Those Vendetta rods by Abu aren’t just a great value but man, they are pretty sweet

Kistler Rods – They did not have a booth this year but we got an exclusive on new rods and components being used. Cal’s pounding that article out right now and should be posted in a few hours from now

We ran into a new Italian company… they are bringing European rods to the US! They are JDM quality but with a non-JDM price point. Company is called Colmic. The rods that stood out are called Herackles. Not only do they have rods but they have nice looking lures too.

Fishouflage – This new company is trying to build an identity for anglers. Instead of anglers wearing hunting camo, they have “fishing camo”. A few companies already licensed their patterns for apparel, boat wraps, tackle bags, etc

Ahi USA – They have a new jig head, for bass and saltwater guys, that’s encased in acrylic. Almost like the River2Sea spinnerbait that I reviewed.

Oh yeah, FROGS, like value rods and reels, tons of pros are coming out with their own frogs. Some have really neat and functional features.

Back to writing in-depth articles. Signing out.

Day 2 begins with more ICAST coverage with more introductions to new tackle and interviews with pros like Ike, Byron, and more…

We’re off to ICAST at Orlando, Florida. Articles will be pouring in immediately after we have dinner on Wednesday evening so check out TackleTour. Reel coverages  first.

Cal and I are back from fishing Lake Novillo, Mexico. We flew to Hermosillo with Jonah from Hi’s Tackle Box, Dean from Blackwater International, and Justin from Anglers West TV. At the Hermosillo airport, owners Bob and Bill of BMB picked us up and drove the group to their bed and breakfast that’s just 2 hours away. The house is located in San Pedro de la Cueva that’s only a slow 10 minute tow to Lake Novillo. A complete article will be posted on TackleTour.com shortly. http://www.tackletour.com

We were there for a few reasons but our main focus was on the Crankbait Rod Wars, and did we have a good crankbait bite on Lake Novillo that allowed us to truly test the gear for the Year of the Crank. Aside from crankbaits, lures such as Zoom lizards, Senkos, Powerbait 10 inch worms, paddletail swimbaits, poppers, jigs… sheez, almost everything worked out there.

The lake has a lot of bass, Northern and Florida strains, and catching 4 to 7 pounders are very common with double digit bass lurking nearby. The bass in Lake Novillo are aggressive! They hit hard and don’t stop fighting until they are released back into the water. I lost a big one after it jumped clearly out of the water 4 times and finally spitting the hook right by the boat.

Anyways, enjoy these photos…