What happened to icast this year?

[yikess]

So far the most I have seen are photos of some gewber in a clown shirt standing next to another gewber in a clown shirt smiling and posing for selfies. What happened to the good ole days when manufactures introduced new and exciting innovative products to the fishing industry?

Now I have seen a few new colors of this jig and that jig but so what?

I'm looking a microchip enabled, guided crappie missile that scare fish into my boat that I can buy for about $5! LOL

Maybe next year. We can write this one off as a meet and greet.

[huntinslabs]

Definitely has not raised any eyebrows that I have seen yet this year. And that is from 6 different forums that are typically lit up about now. Seems only to have excited some that they have been a little more careful of who they let in this year. Stopped a bunch of posers that have outdoor blogs and not really industry related.

[monkscrappie]

I made my last trip to ICAST in Orlando, yesterday. The Orange County Convention Center was colder than my refrigerator. It was so uncomfortable, we had to go outside to "warm up". We had planned to stay (2) days; however, we were so uncomfortable could not finish the first day. Mrs. Monk did take extra clothing; however, a big fur coat would not have been enough.

Traffic around Orlando is "gridlock". Stop and go all day. Resturants are so crowded you cannot find parking much less a table. All the food prices are "jacked up" for the tourist. A simple breakfast is $30.00 plus tip.

Orange County Convention Center is in the middle of Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios. I do not under stand why a fishing tackle show needs to be held in the middle of all these tourist traps. I do not believe Las Vegas is any better for a fishing tackle show. Maybe I am ageing to the point that I am only interested in seeing what is new in tackle industry.

Another slap in the face; parking was $15 per day.

Monk

[huntinslabs]

It is there because they have great promoters with all kinds of sparkly stuff to put in the face of event planners. And yes traffic is a mess and going to be worse for another 6-8 years with them rebuilding I-4. I hate going down there, luckily I work just short of all the madness, and seldom have to make the trek through. Cant wait for the BPS to be built in Daytona so I really would have no reason to venture there.