Episode 231: Is ICAST Dying? What We Saw in 2026

Angelo is joined by Nik and Dean Taylor to break down everything they saw at ICAST 2026, and the future of the fishing industry might not be looking as healthy as everyone thinks.

The world’s biggest fishing trade show felt noticeably smaller this year. Major brands were missing, attendance was down, entire award categories lacked competition, and a wine and champagne cooler somehow walked away as one of the show’s top fishing products. Is ICAST dying, or does the event simply need a serious overhaul?

The boys also discuss Garmin’s new LiveScope 2 HD and Spy Pole, the explosion of bizarre urchin-style baits, questionable Best in Show results, and whether opening ICAST to the public could save the event.

Before getting into the show, the crew breaks down Ontario’s upcoming digital hunting and fishing licensing system, whether wildfire smoke changes fish behaviour, and another absolutely brutal Air Canada travel disaster that left flights cancelled, bags misplaced, and Angelo stranded in Orlando.

Plus, encounters with fishing legends Bill Dance and Jimmy Houston, a surprise appearance from Steve Harvey, and plenty more from inside ICAST 2026.

Enter the Fish’n Canada contest at FishnCanada.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

This episode of Outdoor Journal Radio is brought to you in part by the Invasive Species Center, protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species. Freedom Cruise Canada, rent the boat, own the memories. And JMB Cycle a Marine, your home for all things power sports, boats, and equipment.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

And now, another exciting episode of the adventures of Outdoor Journal Radio.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to the program over here. You see, there's nothing there, right? So that means I'm flying solo today, kids. Buckle up. This is the I'm not really flying solo because I'm going to have two uh co-pilots with me today, as opposed to just the one. Mr. Bowman is vacationing, so filling in today will be Nikolai. Well, Nick EV. And over here will be Dean Taylor. Come on now. And the reason being is that uh we are fresh from this year's iCast, uh, the big fishing extravaganza that takes place each year in Orlando, the last nine years, although I have a feeling that's about to change. They're gonna have to make some changes pretty soon. But, anyways, we'll talk about that on the show before we get into all of that good stuff. Uh in the fishing store. No, the new merch is not in yet. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_03 1:37

We had a delay, we had a delay in uh production, which was outside of our control, which sucks. Wow. I know I'm heartbroken.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

I'm just I think we need to have uh Mr. Dawson, uh Tim Dawson on the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

It's not a bad reason to have him explain why what the hell is going on. Exactly. Because I know I did my things on time, and I know you did your things on time, so why can't we get these hoodies on time? Ridiculous. Shit, bring it on. Bring it on. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Uh season 40 is uh now airing, and I think we're into the second repeat cycle of it, so we needn't remind you that uh if you want to catch the fish in Canada show, if you are, and by the way, we've learned that there are quite a few uh of the podcasters, uh podcast audience that uh in fact don't regularly watch the Fish in Canada show. Who knew? Uh so uh for those folks, we'd just like to remind you that every Saturday morning on Global Television Network, coast to coast to coast, eight o'clock in most jurisdictions, with the exception of the Left Coast. They view us at 10 and 10:30, uh BC and Alberta, respectively. Uh if you don't like either one of those, you could also go to Sportsman's Channel, and we air four days a week. Or on WFN, the World Fishing Network, we air three days a week or four, depending on the week. There you go. Check us out. Or you could uh always just skip all of that, traditional stuff, and just go to YouTube. And you're already there right now, probably. And you're there already. So right now you could be you could actually be watching an episode of the Fish in Canada show and this episode at the same time, could you not? That's a lot of that's a lot of overstimulation.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Is it from a lot? I don't know. I feel like I could do it. You've I got the little eight dee did oh. I can watch two things at once. So I get one eye go that way, one eye go that way. But I don't know. Uh that's a big ass.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Keep an eye on things. Yeah. I'll do my best. The drum roll. That was a little pun. Thank you. Thank you. We should do can we get those buttons like that? It'll be nice for you to have your own buttons. I think it would be. Well, you know what? No.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Your buttons need a timer, like a cooldown. When you hit it, it's got like you know, 30-second cooldown.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Or you can't go back to it. Or you can only use it so many times in the show.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

They have an ex you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Oh, that's like uh I was trying to get into one of my old uh what the hell was it? Trying to get in uh anyways, I forgot a password, and of course, I you know did everything that I could remember that would be and then it locked me out.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

I hate it when was it Steam by any chance? No. No? Why why why Steam? Because you got your password on a sticky note on the bottom side of your uh of your uh keyboard, in case in case it was. I just I know your password's there.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Anyways, um not that you'd want to know any of that stuff. Um listener feedback. Let's go to listener feedback, shall we, gentlemen? Uh, in response to our Ivan Ho Lake podcast, that was the uh Red Pine. Uh you two gentlemen were involved in that. There you go. Um Mikey Michael Little Mike Little? Mike Little Yeah, Mike Little uh dash J2T via YouTube. Uh speaking of YouTube, obviously. Uh you guys uh love your guys' content. Uh was awesome to see you up north. I go to Red Pine and air Ivanhoe every year. Uh my dad had been uh going up there since the early 80s, and I go up on fishing trips end of May or every year, and get to share with my daughters each year now, even though it is an 11-hour drive up there, an 11-hour drive up there. This is interesting that you you didn't even correct uh any of the grammar mistakes there because you're trying to trip me up, aren't you? Yeah, I'm trying. Yeah, good work. Um seeing you seeing you up there as this year, and was awesome. Not that you would remember, but uh we had the black and red legend 17 XT, but glad you enjoyed the trip up there and can't wait to see the video when it comes out. Does anybody remember that boat? A black legend? I remember that.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

I believe that's who we talked to in the parking lot at the boat launch one day.

SPEAKER_02 6:09

I'm pretty sure. Very nice. Parking lot at the boat launch. Very nice.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

I think you may have been in the boat actually, Ange, because we were pulling the boat out or we were getting the truck every day. Right on. Yeah, right on.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Yeah, so you missed them.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

I missed them. Well, there you go. Now, now I've connected with them.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

Look at that.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

All things come full circle.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Isn't it funny how that stuff happens, huh? It's crazy. Anyways, uh Mike Little, uh J2T. Thank you for that via YouTube. He gets nothing with that, right? No, he gets nothing.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

But he gets to watch the episode.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Exactly. And the fact that we we said thank you and acknowledge it, and we appreciate that stuff. Yeah, I think you should say, you know, give Mike a heartfelt thank you. I don't you don't you don't think I just did? Well, and I'm not saying that you did or didn't. Well, thank you very much, Mike. Appreciate it. I that's the third time now I've said it. Holy smokes, everybody's gonna want it. They're all gonna expect that if we keep this up. Good lord. Uh, conservation corner brought to you by the good folks at evasivarp.ca. If you have not done so, if you're one of the few people left in this part of the world that does not have that critter emblazoned somewhere on you uh and your boat and your uh uh phone and or wherever else you emblazon things, then you need to do so. Best place to do it is at invasivecarp.ca uh in the news brought to you by JB, your outdoor superstore, JB Marine and Cycle, or cycle and marine, depending on whether you're coming from the right or the left, right? That it would it will change accordingly. Uh Ontario's largest prince craft. No, not even a little nothing for that either. I mean, holy smokes. Maybe your jokes just aren't landing like they thought.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

Like you maybe like I they are with me. He was very serious as a child.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Well, I know that, but he's not a child anymore. Well, he can still be serious.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

I'm still learning. I'm still learning the studio. He's a lifelong student.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

All right. Uh, where was I? Uh Ontario's largest prince craft, Mercury Prince Craft uh dealer. Uh all you do is just uh add the love and the uh gasoline and the water, and you go have fun. There are folks at uh J and B do the rest for you. All right. In the news, uh new digital licensing system for hunting fishing in Ontario coming next year. I've heard this about now, I've heard this probably the third or fourth time.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Oh, really? Yeah. This is not new. Well, this was sent to me from Minister Harris himself, and he is coming on the podcast uh in a few weeks to explain himself. He's got a lot of explaining to do then.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

I like it when uh when a minister allows themselves to, you know, kind of go a little more under the radar and talk freely about some stuff because it it's always a good feel when your representative is uh you know able to be down there with you. Well, I'm a fan of that.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Oh, huge fan.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Huge fan of transparency, called openness and honesty. Love the fact that he's coming on to talk about this decision because this is a pretty big decision. Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

If it goes through, it's over it's overdue for the most part. Like even I mean, this will help out a lot of people, and I think it's just gonna make things a lot easier for younger people to get to understand the like the licensing system, and I'm hoping the tag system, especially for hunting, because it can be pretty confusing. Um and the way we have it now, I don't know. I don't have many complaints in the fishing world, but in the hunting world, our new tagging system, ever since they went away from the plastic-coated tags, having to carry around a piece of paper, and if it gets wet, you can't print it again. And it's just it's not the most efficient system. So I'm hoping this clears some stuff up in the uh uh on that side, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Well, and uh they need to pay uh a little bit of respect to this whole thing because after all, at the end of the day, approximately sixty-five million dollars uh was collected in 24-25 for the licensing of you know, whether it's fish, wildlife, et cetera, et cetera. So that's a considerable amount of income uh for the government. So for them to focus a little bit more on making it uh I know you call it user-friendly, but in some cases it might not be to people like me. But regardless, uh forget people like me. It's the masses that we need to deal with. And obviously today uh it's got to be some kind of a mobile app thing.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

Well, luckily, on the upside is uh you don't have to get one anymore.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Well, I know, but I I still do have to follow the law, though. I have to understand the law, the rules and regulations.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

True, very true.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

I need a license, but I need to know what the hell I'm doing. At the best of times, I can't tell, though, let alone without having some some uh see I I'm I'm I'm an old school guy, right? I love paper. I still would uh up until what three years ago, two years ago, I had to read my newspaper every morning in real paper.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

I didn't I didn't know you stopped doing that.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah, the uh the uh well yeah, it's a long story, but did you get banned from the uh paper room? Were you mean to the paper boy? What'd you do to the paper boy? Anyways, I had to go online and uh now I've been consuming it online. The reason being is that I'm on road so much that I was missing the uh the newspaper when I was on road. Well, now that I'm doing it online every morning, while you boys are still on logs, I'm up there reading a paper online, just so that you know. Um what else do we need to know about this game?

SPEAKER_00 11:52

There's not much. We'll get into it more with Mr. Harris because there hasn't been so right now they're talking about the the app's mostly going to be for purchasing your licenses and tags, um, and then reminding you of renewals and stuff, which is nice. And the hunter reporting is another good one because the penalties for that, I don't know, I think they've come down a little bit, but you used to be like if you missed a hunting report, which is normally after a hunting season, you have like 30 days to get on it, you could not be eligible to buy a tag the next year if you miss that. So having that on your phone and making it a little bit easier would be nice. But what I would love to see is that fish online tool they have, which um you can go into specific lakes and it'll tell you the regulations and the slot sizes and the stocking lists and everything like that. It'd be cool if they merge that so that when you're on a lake, you can pull up this like all that information quickly because it would clear things up for a lot of people who the regulations are like the regulations are confusing for us and for the average person who goes to a lake and they they don't know that they're on a sanctuary or they don't know that they're on the one body of water where the lake trout closes a month earlier. It'd be so nice to have that like GPS technology to tell you that okay, in this area you're not allowed to fish for lake trout right now or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

I'm hoping so. I mean it's gotta be. Yeah, it can't be anything less than that, and it's gotta be more than that, right? But if it's at least that, then you should be able to see the zone that you're in.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

And you should know what the regs are for that zone. I don't know if it's necessary or even if they can break it down to every single body of water in the case of fishing and every single, you know, square hectare in the in the case of hunting. I think that would be a asking little.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Well, the fish online tool kind of does that. Like if I was going to Little Lady Evelyn Lake, you type in that name, pops up, you click on it, you can see the regulations for that specific lake, you can see what was stocked in there and when, you can see what people are catching, you can see restrictions. So they have the technology on desktop. I'm just, I don't know. I know how hard it is to develop apps and stuff like that and maintain that kind of thing. And um, I'm hoping it's a it's possible.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Whatever happened to you know, working hard to get stuff inflation like today, you guys just want everything.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

It's gotta be, yeah, it would be nice if I had and I could well no, it's it's not about ease, it's about that's about conservation. Like if people aren't following the regs because they're so and I mean anybody who looks at them finds them them confusing. Like you can look at a whole zone and then you have to scroll down like 20 pages to see all the exceptions.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you are responsible for making decisions.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Of course, but it's not like we also all know that most people who poach don't get caught or who accidentally poach don't get caught because there's not a lot of enforcement. So if you can make people aware, like I think a lot of people who are breaking fishing regulations aren't even doing it like on purpose. They're just they it's the regulations are confusing. So I think it would just help people out.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

All right. Well, we'll see. We'll see when the boss comes on. And we'll uh when's this uh supposed to be uh due? He'll be on in about two weeks. In about two weeks. Yep. Kind of like about like when the store will have the new uh merch in. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

I think that that's not my fault, and we need to just be the same. Did I say did I say it was your fault? I just uh you know it's like PTSD when you mention it, it uh it it it causes hurt.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

No, I'm not buying anybody grievance. I'm just being open and transparent.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Filing a grievance.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Fad question of the week submitted by uh Evan Calderwick via email. Oh, no the YouTube? Not the YouTube. Why not the YouTube? I have no idea. Evan. He goes on to say, or he, Evan, yeah, I just say he. Um hey guys, with all the wildfire smoke we've experienced over the past few summers, have you noticed any difference in how the fish behave? I always seem to struggle on really smoky days. Wow, this guy's been out in a lot of uh fires.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Well, we've had it a lot.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Yeah. Uh even when the weather and the water conditions seem good. Does the smoke change the amount of light reaching the water uh affect feeding patterns, or is it probably just a coincidence? I'd be interested to hear whether you're experienced the same thing. Um the only uh I think I can isolate three cases where we were on a chute and in a remote part of the country where there were fires nearby, one was in Alberta and two here in Ontario. And um in one case, in one case, I do think it affected the fish and the fishing. But in the other two cases, I don't think it had any effect at all. Now, if I recall, the one case where it did have a profound effect on fish was um something that moved in fairly quickly. So the skies were clear all week, and then all of a sudden, boom, uh the next day the the smoke finally hit us. The fires were close enough, smoke finally hit us, and we had complete cover, no light penetration, pretty much whatsoever to the water, and it did affect our fishing, but not in a way you would think. It affected it in a positive way, not negative. The other two times, uh we kind of arrived midstream, the smoke uh conditions were already in place, and I don't think I can recall any real positive or adverse effect to the fish at all. But this one particular time, yeah, it it uh turned them off for whatever reason. It was like a uh a front moving through. I don't know. That's not the case because fronts moving through are more about pressure than they are about uh light penetration. So I say like a front, only that the fish seemed to become more active when that cloud moved in and it completely closed the uh I guess UV rays uh hitting the water. Um yeah, they they cranked up for a little bit for an hour until we had to skedaddle out of there because it was getting a little dangerous. Uh but other than that, no. How about uh you two? How about you two young gentlemen?

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Uh I've actually had the opposite experience, but I think some of its coincidence, like I fished pretty much directly in a forest fire. It was still actively burning around us, but that was in a river. Um, a bull trout spot that I've fished for the last like seven years that's always been good, and we got skunked on this trip for the first time ever. Um, but I think it had more to do with water levels, like the there was it was so dry and so little rain all year. We're so reliant on the coconut spawn or the the like the coconut moving up in that area. I think it just had more to do with that, and the fires were a consequence of the dryness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

Um I don't think personally, uh I don't think there is a physical effect to the fish from a fire. Obviously, heat, if it's right on top of them, obviously the water temperatures are going to change. But I don't think there is not a pressure change at the time that this happens, there's not a significant barometer drop or rise.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

You don't think that maybe just like the blotting of the sun might change some stuff? Because you think about you know, if the algae eat you know through photosynthesis and the little fish eat those, and then bigger, I feel like it'll send eventually a ripple through the food chain if the sun isn't providing the nutrients for the little microscopic plant life that it needs.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Yeah, I in time, in time. So if that that uh due to fire, if if if the lack of light is over a long period of time, like it is right now in certain parts of uh this province, in fact, this country, uh due to fires, then I think eventually it will. But I don't think it's anything that's we can really pinpoint and say yes, instantly. As soon as a fire and smoke, um fish are gonna be affected. I I don't think so. But once again, that's just my opinion based on having spent a few days out in the field. Uh I'm sure science would tell us different. Maybe, maybe this is something for Dr. Cook. Yeah, if we can remember to ask him that. Yeah, maybe maybe we can uh make somebody makes a note. Yes, I'll make a note. Somebody makes a note, please. Yes. But this would be a good one. But to me, um it's just it's just cloud cover to them. They don't uh there's nothing in it for them to say that because keep in mind, for us as humans, breathing that air apparently is not healthy or so we're being told. And I'm sure, and I have to believe that.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

I saw the thing where it said um being outside in Toronto was the equivalent for like an hour was the equivalent of smoking a cigarette. Right. Okay. Who knows?

SPEAKER_02 21:17

But but but fish don't breathe that air. So we can't attribute fires to a lack of breathable oxygen to them, right? So it's just light penetration. And over the course of of the year, I mean, these fish are accustomed to it's not like they got a clock and and know that okay, it's supposed to be dark now, it's supposed to be light now. They've got weather patterns moving through their world constantly blocking out light. And so I I don't think it's as big a deal. But once again, I would defer to the scientist, uh Dr. Cook, on this one. All right. Yep, we'll we will get him on. This episode is brought to you by Sale. Sale is pretty From rods and reels to sonars to kayaks and every last lure you've seen on the Fishing Canada show, Sale has all the gear to get you on the water. Drop into one of 12 stores across Ontario and Quebec and talk to the real fishing specialists or gear up online anytime at Sale.ca. Sale, the ultimate destination for your outdoor adventures. Now, before we get into the gists of the show today, uh, which, as I mentioned, is iCast, um I wasn't going to, but I feel compelled. We need to talk about a serious problem that we have in this country. Maybe globally. I don't know. But honestly, I don't really care because it affects me here in this country. Our national airlines, Air Canada. Um we we need to we need to do something about this. Honestly. Something has to be done. And the boys and I were were involved in another Air Canada fiasco that was almost like it was insane. See, I don't understand. Guys, back me up on this. Hopefully, I don't understand how a company can say that they're having mechanical difficulties uh prior to the mechanical difficulties happening.

SPEAKER_03 23:23

Well, beyond that, I just can't understand how they did anything. It was the biggest biggest piece of dog shit airline I I think I've ever witnessed in my life. But what they did specifically with my flights, uh, it was just appalling.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Um so just to set it up in a nutshell, the three of us flew down together uh from Toronto to Orlando um for the iCast show. Uh, but coming back, uh Dean and I were going to fly separately from Nick because Nick was going from Orlando to Montreal. And Dean and I were going back to Toronto.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Which on paper was it looked perfect. Yeah, no problem. I had a concert in Montreal I wanted to go to after iCast. Yeah, uh, which I ended up making and it was awesome. But I made it because uh let me tell you how I hadn't ended up making it.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

But this, you know, but uh believe me, we wouldn't be taking up this time a podcast, this time on the podcast, if it wasn't for the fact that this happens to us regularly. When I say regularly, I mean right whenever we say to our, you know, it's just like just when you thought it was safe to go back in water, you know, kind of uh analysis, whenever we think it's safe to go back to Air Canada, they kick us in the nuts.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

Every time. Every time.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

So in this case, so we're we go down there, everything is uh fairly okay, relatively okay, other than anyways, it's fine. It was okay. Coming back though, um we got information a few hours prior to uh Nick's departure and ours on separate flights that the plane had been um it was canceled. The flight was actually can't no first it was delayed.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

No, for the first one for Montreal was cancelled outright. No, yeah. That then Toronto was delayed, they rebooked Montreal.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Before Toronto was delayed, Montreal got delayed uh by 20 minutes. Then it got canceled. That's the way it went down.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

And so we're asking the now, in all fairness to the uh people at the gate, and I know those are the ones that we end up arguing with on these cases every time, and they have nothing to do with it. They're they're getting information as you're getting it, right? So they have nothing to do with it. Um bottom line is that I think it's time that we held their feet to the fire, they being Air Canada, they now have used this um technical issues with their equipment as a standard go-to because I think their legal system has figured out this is the only way we can not get sued, right? But they use it every time. Every time that there's a problem, it's mechanical failure. Well, I'll tell you what, if they really and truly have as many mechanical failures as they claim to, we shouldn't be flying with them, anyways. I mean, that's even the best part. If they can't keep their planes in the sky, why the hell are we flying with them? But it's an excuse. So, bottom line is uh it was another air candidate experience that we are gonna chalk up. Dean, you've had your own experiences with them, even separate from I've had lots.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Yeah, I flew to BC for an ice fishing trip in the winter and it was delayed 19 hours. So I missed uh like a rental that I had booked for a snowmobile. It cost me a ton of money. Um I've still been trying to fight to get compensation because they say if it's a more than a nine-hour delay, you're entitled to compensation, but unless it's not their fault, and they view apparently overbooking a flight as not their fault.

SPEAKER_03 27:15

So like how the hell do you I just I think they're criminals, they're they're a bunch of goddamn crooks, honest to God. No, I'm serious. I'm so serious.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

I mean, they're they are so bold now, they don't really give they gave us a $15 meal voucher for the inconvenience of me having to book a $300 a night hotel room because I couldn't fly back home.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

Yeah, because what ended up happening, what ended up happening is after so flight number one for me to Montreal got canceled, it was at 8 o'clock. The boys' flight was at 8 30. And then my second flight got canceled. That was at 9 o'clock. So now both flights were canceled. We go to the gate and we're like, hey, what the hell's going on here? Or the the bag check-in. And like, okay, well, we rebook due for the next day at 1 p.m. Which means I wouldn't be getting back into town until 5, 6. And so I'd missed my concert. I was gonna miss the entire thing that I was going for. So Grandpa ended up switching out seats with me. So I flew back to Toronto to then connect to Montreal. He stayed in Orlando. Thank you very much for that again, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Wait, wait till you get my bill, because obviously Air Canada's not gonna pay more. Somebody's got to pay for the hotel room.

SPEAKER_03 28:35

I'm no better.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

That's 300 bucks US, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

So what ended up happening, it's okay. I can send you my gas bill. I'll send Air Canada my gas bill. Because what ended up happening is we we are leaving for Toronto and it's got one hour layover between the flight out of Toronto and the flight to Montreal. So instead of getting into Montreal at like 1 a.m., I was gonna get there at 3 a.m., but that's fine because I'd be going to bed and wake up early the next day. Anyway, instead, they delayed the Toronto flight. So I had a five-minute layover, which you just simply can't get from Terminal 1 to Terminal, you just can't make it to the plane. So we ended up having to cancel my connecting flight from Toronto to Montreal because there was just no way I was gonna get there. And then they said, okay, well, we'll uh we'll put you in a flight for 6 a.m. instead of 1 a.m. I said, okay, well, what are you gonna do for me here? I'm gonna be stuck at the airport for six hours? Like, what's going on? Are you gonna get me a hotel or some sort of? And they're like, no. No, nothing. You you uh you'll just have to kick rocks around here for six hours. Uh I said, okay, well, what about my suitcase? Where's my suitcase gonna go? Well, it should stay in Toronto. I said, okay, all right. Well, if it should stay in Toronto and I just gotta, you know, kick rocks, I'll drive myself to Montreal, which is what it ended up doing. When I landed at midnight, I uh got my car and drove. But they lost my bag in Pearson. So I stayed around there for another 45 minutes trying to talk with the guy at Air Canada as to where they put the bag. They put it on the plane to Montreal and had to pull it off the plane before that thing left before it took off.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Bottom line to all of this uh nonsense is that it's high time we as Canadian consumers and Canadian public uh didn't just accept it and say, oh, well, it's Air Canada, they're terrible. They have a monopoly, they own the skies in this country. We don't have a lot of options besides them. It's time that somebody started taking the bull by the horns and said, There's no other retailer in this country that could get away with what Air Canada gets away with and still be in business. Can you tell me why? Can somebody explain to me how that happens? Governor Mint? Yeah, yeah. But, anyways, uh, we thought we would let you know. If you have an option at all, scour every possible option that you have, including, by the way, drive to Buffalo if you have to and get on a United or Delta. I'm sure they have their own problems as well. Don't get me wrong. Uh I'm not naive enough to think that Air Canada is the only one that's pulling. And you know what they're doing, eh? I know what they're doing. If anybody's listening from uh Air Canada, I'm on to you. I know exactly what you're doing. These mechanical failures that you're having just poof every day, numerous times a day on different airplanes, is because you're trying to fill up every flight. Because you do. You're very successful. You figured it out. How do you fill up flights? Cancel every other flight around it that's going to the same destination. Eventually, we will fill every flight and we will be 100% efficient. That's what you're doing. I know it. Time to stop it. All right, now let's talk about something that we do have some experience at, and that is uh the 2026 iCast show that the three of us have just uh returned from. And so we'd like to share our experiences, both uh good and bad, at this year's show. So uh first of all, I an observation, it wouldn't be you know, it wouldn't take a genius to note this, but the show has it's shrank tremendously over the last two seasons, the two years. This year it was really evident. I would say what, guys, sixty percent of what it used to be, size-wise.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

Uh yeah, I've only been going for the last five or six years now, I guess. And uh yeah, it this is was nothing like any other year I've seen. Like it was yeah, it was it was pretty dramatic.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

It was pretty small. Like we walk, I don't think we've ever walked the entirety of our cast before. Exactly. Um especially not in a day. Like maybe we've gotten to do it over the span of three, yeah, but we could knock the entire show out in a couple hours. Um, I can tell you for fact that you know where the food area was last time was halfway in the middle um compared to last time. Yeah, there was the aisles were bigger, there was less attendees. It really was a little it was a little sad to see, I can't lie. Huge aisles that that there was you know such a gross amount of space with a negligible amount of people.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

So obviously, attrition, um companies come and companies go, and every year, although you you don't really notice it at a at a show of this magnitude or the size it used to be, but there's a big turnover every year, right? So uh some of the companies go out, new companies come in and take their place. Some of the companies go out, new companies come in and take their place. You never notice that. However, I think this year, more than any other year, two things that I noticed is the big names that have dropped the show. And now I did notice a difference in the small players that are not at the show. So it was very significant to me that there's a big there's just a complete turnover of uh exhibitors. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

I think I think the main issue there is that it's almost getting played out at this point. It's been about a decade of in the same spot doing the same things with the same people.

SPEAKER_02 34:24

Yeah, I I that's what I'd like to think.

SPEAKER_03 34:27

You know, like that does get old eventually.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

And for those, by the way, I think we should maybe provide some context for people not in the know of iCast, because it's not a typical show like we talk about, like Sportsman Show or anything like that. It's not a consumer show, it's not a consumer show. So there's there's no public, this is an industry show. So and it's the biggest by far in the fishing industry, like just iconic for representing kind of where the fishing industry is at. So it's not necessarily just like uh a trade show that didn't have a lot of attendance, like it's kind of it it it represents the entire industry, so that's why um even leading up to it, there was a lot of concern of you know, hearing big brands pull out. It's like you know, having a big sporting event and having you know the biggest names in the world not show up. It's just it it's not a great look for the industry. Not at all. Not at all.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

Now to Dick's point, um I've been going to the show first of all, it's gotta be my 50th trip to iCast. And it it throughout those years, there's always been growth. It's never you never noticed it shrinking. And it's not like it's new to Orlando, it's been in Orlando even when they were flip-flopping back and forth, different venues. They used to uh run it between Vegas and Orlando, I think uh every couple of years. Um you never saw shrinkage, but this year you saw it. You saw it, you felt it, you knew it was taking place. And I think it's more of a byproduct of today's um accessibility. Keep in mind what ICAST was once a year, people uh retailers mostly um and distributors from all over the world used to converge wherever it was, whether it was Vegas or Orlando, and they would come in to do two things. Number one, um get in touch with the trends in the fishing and outdoors community, because this is where this is the show where you saw what was going to happen over the course of the next year or two. And the second reason they went is to make sure that they were in line to buy the new products that were being introduced, because this was where it was all introduced each year. You wanted to know what was new in fishing, you go to iCast. But I think that's changed drastically over the last few years, and that you know, I don't want to sound like an old fart because I am, so it's pretty hard for me not to, but since the advent of the internet, all of that has changed. And not just iCast, not just I think shows in general. I think any live uh active show or uh industry show, if you talk to those folks, they'll tell you that it's changed because you didn't have the ability of looking into the future unless you went to these shows. Now you can look into the future every day. Just get on your hell, get on your phone, and it it it it you can see what's coming up next year in just about anything. So I think we have to accept that that's part of the reason that we notice the three of us notice this this incredible shrinking of the show this year. Um and and I don't think we can attribute to anything else. The location, yeah, to Nick's point, it's been in Orlando now for I think this is the ninth straight year, and I think people are starting to get Disney'd out, to be quite honest with you. There's only so many years in a row you can say, hey family, uh iCast, Orlando, Disney, who wants to go? Well, you know, the kids that used to say, Yeah, me, me, well, they're not kids anymore. And so Disney is not the attraction that it used to be. So I think they do need to look at a new venue or some new venues that will allow them to uh you know move the show around. I think it at its best, it was moving around every year, and it attracted people from all over the world, and it was a fantastic show, and you saw a lot of new products and a lot of great energy, positive energy was was introduced at the show, and it would kind of bring you into the new year and you'd be all pumped. And as a former retailer, I'm telling you, that show was everything for me. It it it pretty much told me what I was going to be doing for the whole next 12 year or 12 month period in terms of buying. I don't think we'll ever get back to that. That I think those days are gone. But I am disappointed, and I now I'll defer to you two guys who have not been there nearly as many years as I have. It's sad when the iconic brands pull out. It's sad when the you know some of the players that have been there for years pull out because I think I feel they have a certain sense of responsibility to the industry, and pulling out of a show like that, I think is uh um shows a lack of that.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

I think it's a pretty big statement to to not go. Yeah, it's very much so puts you in the position of we don't care. I I think that's that's and maybe it's not care, maybe it's we don't care enough because it's eating into our business, or it's it's it's just not worth it anymore. But then you look at brands like um Shimano, who dominated at iCast this year's hell, I think they had two or three booths. That and Dio.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

That was refreshing.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

You know, like so it definitely seemed that the ones who stuck around have almost now doubled down on iCast. Yeah, whereas some of the others um who didn't go made it very known. And their pre their presence was felt that it was missing. Right. I think that's the best way I can explain.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

How about you, Dean? Yeah, I kind of feel the it's hard to say like a disrespect, but it feels almost like in that lane when someone like that doesn't show up because it's like they just assume okay, people are gonna buy their product no matter what. We don't need to come out with anything new, we don't need to tell you about it. We're not spending a dollar to come to this thing and be excited and put some energy into the fishing industry because I don't know, it's just in a tough place right now. It feels like um I'm more of coming from not so much the opinion of like uh someone in the industry, but from someone who just like grew up looking forward to iCast to cons just consume and be excited of what is coming out. It just seems like there's no enthusiasm right now for any innovation, and um, these companies just aren't dumping money into really reaching their audience except through like you know, very cheap social media ads and stuff like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Uh the advent uh of this new well, well, I say advent, but you know, the trend definitely seemed to be that the smaller operators, the single booth uh single to you know, th three booth operators, um I know I noticed a huge shift to um companies from China being there at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Yeah, massive for sure.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

Which was a bit surprising, nothing against anybody who's not racially motivated, but I just that that stood out to me. There were a lot of companies straight from China who don't even distribute products in in this part of the world were there. Now, nothing there's anything wrong with that because this is an international show. Don't don't take that the wrong way. It's an international show, so I shouldn't be surprised, but I was surprised nonetheless. It was uh it was quite the statement I saw.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Yeah, they're picking up the slack, I guess. Like they're they're filling in the gaps, and yeah, it's interesting. Like maybe you'll start seeing more of those products. I mean, what maybe people on the outside don't know is that a lot of your favorite fishing products come straight from there and just got a different name put on them for sure. So these companies are now just coming straight here. I mean, I guess that it like it is what it is.

SPEAKER_03 42:33

It's almost like they're cutting the middleman on the station. It's like uh Chinese wholesale. It was pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

It was uh uh to say the least. Anyways, having said that, a lot of great positive things. Uh we got to uh catch up with some old friends that we only see once a year at iCast, so that's always a positive thing. We saw some great new products. I'm always excited every year. Uh, I look for the little subtle new products. You know, everybody can, and we're gonna go through the list here of the best at show uh category. But for me, the exciting part is coming back from each iCast with that one or two little nuggets that I found that I bel and by the way, my record is not good, but I always believed they were gonna be the next big thing, and nobody has discovered them yet. And I felt somehow that I had and nobody else saw them. And generally they weren't the next big thing. So, but I do have two that I saw at this show that we'll talk about here in a couple of minutes. Um, but the obvious ones, the big the show stoppers, we'll call them, are um usually either winning or or very close to winning their category each each year because iCast has a very interesting um and they introduced this about 30 years ago, if I'm not mistaken, thirty two years ago, and that is. A best of show, um, a whole area that they they uh allow exhibitors to uh now. I don't know what the political part of this is, how you get a new product, what how do you qualify for a new product to be a best uh new at show type of thing, but they usually try and showcase all the new products there that are that are um a cut above. And we like going, I know I do, I know you guys do too. Like going there first thing when we get the show just to get a sense of what's new. So you'll make the rounds. How many products would you guys say that are in that that area, guys?

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Oh, there's I mean, normally there's like too many, like you would spend all day, like it's almost annoying having to fill out that many items on a card. Like it goes from A to Z, and then there's it's like AA, A B, A C, A, D. So probably 50 categories or something like that at the end of it. Yeah. Something like that.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

Yeah, there's a lot. There's there's a lot. And so they invite uh people like ourselves, media um folks, to go in and they give you a card that Dean was alluding to, and you check off your favorite in each category, and then at the end of it all, they tabulate uh all of those cards, and somehow they come up with the uh best of show in each category, and then you have the best of show, period. And uh I was involved in a best of show once. I don't know whether you two know it or not. I don't think so. Uh the rocket fishing rod.

SPEAKER_00 45:31

Oh, yeah, of course. Oh, the rocket rod.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

That was huge, man. We had a big uh party afterwards, let me tell you that. Because it was a big deal. Getting best of show at uh iCast, uh, it kind of guarantees that your product is gonna make it to market. There's no way that you win best of show. There's no way that that product will not get to the shelves unless you don't produce it and manufacture it. It's it's a real kick in the butt for uh small um manufacturers and and distributors. So yeah, we won uh rocket fishing rod in that excuse me. Yeah, put it on the map. That's uh that's pretty awesome. Yeah. Uh but uh I'm a little bit leery anymore about see, and I said before we started that segment about the best of show, the political part of it, uh, because sometimes things will win and you look at them and say, really? Like the majority of the people voted that as the best product at the show. And this year, honestly, uh it's no different, and no disrespect to the manufacturers and or distributors that put these products in the showcase area. But um the best of show this year, are you you guys as shocked as I am? Uh the a fishing rod, a two-piece medium action fishing rod? Yeah, uh, it's a little weird. Like, are you serious?

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Yeah, and this is obviously like your entry-level combo, like six foot six, like very short, just something very entry-level Canadian tire type fishing rod from Zebco. I mean, nothing wrong with it. Are you serious? This is supposed to be like the groundbreaking thing in the fishing industry, and we're gonna talk about soon. Like, there were clearly groundbreaking, not groundbreaking in a sense of like crazy.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

No, but there was some cool groundbreaking stuff.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

Trends that are changing the industry right now. Um, that I'm I was very surprised were were not best in shape.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

It was a little odd seeing it had um this is the rhino rod, right? I believe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They had a lot of advertisement in uh iCast. In the bathrooms. In the bathrooms, over the urinals. So over the urinals, it would be a rhinos ass, and it said take your best shot or something like that. It was a little bizarre, I can't lie. But um that might be why they won. They encourage people. Well, you know, it could have just been a matter of you seeing it everywhere, everyone decided in that category to vote for it and then end up winning best of show. But guys, remember who the voters are.

SPEAKER_02 48:07

This is media, yeah. So we're supposed to be above that, yeah. Right? We're not influenced by media because we produce media.

SPEAKER_03 48:18

Yeah, there's also all AI, which we're not fan.

SPEAKER_02 48:21

There is that too. And the other thing, too, by the way, the rhino is not new. Uh, Zepko had the rhino 30, 40 years ago. So I think they're just bringing something back. The brand uh has has been brought back, it's not a new new notion at all. Uh, I just found it the uh it's fine if you win your category with something like this, which is a low to mid-range uh rod and reel combo. It's fine if you win in your category, but to win best of show, come on. Anyways, that was a little disappointing. Yeah, I would agree. Uh in electronics, well, now here you the audience might think we're a little bit biased. Perhaps, maybe, I don't know. Uh, but Life Scope 2 HD was introduced, and uh holy smokes. Like, is it wild?

SPEAKER_00 49:16

Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, there was no competition really in this category. I've this was I I I thought this would be best to show just because it had the whole show talking. Exactly. So I I assumed, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:27

But anyways, uh it did win in electronics, and it will be upon us um as this airs. As this airs.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

If you can get, I mean, I would get your name on a list immediately wherever you're gonna buy this thing because they're pre-selling, I believe. And we're gonna have uh some people from Garmin come on and get into the details here because uh some of the tech in this is probably above our heads. I think. Way, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:51

Yeah, even with the stuff we were talking about with Levi, he he would mention some things and it was right over.

SPEAKER_02 49:57

Oh all I know, you know, it's like my refrigerator. Well, it works. I really don't care how it forms the ice in the freezer. I really don't care that it somehow it takes warm air, makes I really don't care. I don't need to know how it works. What I need to know is this your refrigerator running. I open that door and I pull out a nice beverage, it is cold. That's all I want to know. This is kind of the same. The imagery that they're getting from this new LiveScope, too, is mind-blowing only because of how good the current version is. So uh boom, mine has been blown.

SPEAKER_00 50:40

And no black box. For anyone familiar with LiveScope, there is no black box, so it's uh much more portable because some I have a portable kit right now that it's hard to call it that, and this new one is going to be very, very portable. It's gonna be nice.

SPEAKER_02 50:55

Uh, in terms of uh freshwater hard baits, because they have different categories, salt water, freshwater, etc. Um, the winner is from American Bait Works Company. Yep. And it's the artesian wake and crank 130. Anybody anybody see that? Did anybody vote for it?

SPEAKER_00 51:17

Do you I did not vote for it? I saw it. Um, I mean it looks there's something like this kind of every year, these super realistic baits. Um, we've actually talked a lot about this, I don't know, on the podcast, but um for us, like we actually fish a Yozuri version of this, uh like a glide bait um that's been working great. Really good, yeah. But it doesn't seem like the more natural it looks, the better it works. It's just like so to me, this wasn't super exciting, plus this the whole sunfish look wasn't isn't really uh I don't know about that shape for this kind of bait, but I mean it's cool looking, though the paint job's really cool. So, once again, are you surprised that this would win best of not so much because when you looked at its competition, it really stands out. Like the paint is great. I mean, it's one of those things like it probably catches more anglers than fish, I'd imagine.

SPEAKER_02 52:08

Bingo. Yeah. Uh motorized boating accessory. Man, oh man, oh man. This was a given, I think. Oh uh the spy pole. The spy pole, Garmin's spy pole.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

I don't actually know if they had competition like at all in this category.

SPEAKER_02 52:28

No.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

Uh they may have even made this category for them.

SPEAKER_02 52:32

Well, uh, I mean, there are there are motorized boating accessories competing that are not this, right? But anything motorized, and um there are there are some some products out there. Yeah, but this this thing is uh insane. Uh, we won't bore you with the details because I'm pissed at Garmin right now that I don't have one of these. I'm embarrassed to say. And um it's a game changer. If you're using forward-facing sonar, hang hanging those transducers on poles, and you want the total independence from the trolling motor uh direction and action for your uh live view transducer. This there is there, believe me, there is no other alternative on the market. This is the one. The only thing it doesn't do, it doesn't plug into your own uh system so that you could uh uh telepathically tell it to do things, but very close to doing that. So incredible called the spy pole. Uh no surprise at all on that one. Uh freshwater uh soft lure. This was what was taking over the show. Uh uh urchin bait, which is a phenomenal looking uh bait that none of us really truly understand at all because it doesn't look like anything we've ever seen. But apparently it's the big hot ticket, and certainly at this year's iCast, uh you if you hadn't been exposed to it before, you certainly got exposed to it now. What's your take, boys?

SPEAKER_03 54:13

I think that they're they're just so different, and that's why they're working, right? I don't know if it's necessarily because it's an urchin, I don't know if it's because it's a ball instead of a square, or if it's because some of the the tags under the legs or whatever are two inches versus one inch. I don't think it has anything to do with any of the details of these urchin baits. I think that they're just so unique and so different that that's why they're they're succeeding right now, because it's just some stuff that these fish has never seen before. They've all seen a Senko, they've all seen a swim bait, they've all seen a jerk bait, they know what a real thing looks like, so they know that it's it's not real, or at least that's what makes sense to me. So when it comes to these urchin baits, I think that that's why they're doing so well, is that they're just different enough to kind of shake it all up.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

Yeah, I I initially thought that maybe it's kind of like the skirt on like a swim jig or a spinnerbait where when you move it, they all move in the same direction, which creates like kind of the shape of a fish's body where it's bigger at the front and it tapers down. But then when we saw these in person, the one the legs don't really move that easily, so they're it's fully staying in form as you're moving it. Like if you were drop shotting this, all the legs are staying in whatever direction they're pointed, and then some of the variations that we saw down there, like they're yeah, they're definitely not trying to imitate bait fish in any way I could recognize. So they're just capitalizing on, yeah, like Nick said, just being so unique that a fish just has to take advantage of eating it because it's never seen anything like this. That's meth that's what I think.

SPEAKER_03 55:52

I'll tell you, they were so popular down at the show this year that they were actually different exhibitors were advertising cases specifically for urchin baits. Yeah, tackle boxes, tackle boxes specifically for urchin baits, not you know, like like they seem to just be ex Yeah, that there it is right there.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

Yeah, in fact, like uh tackle under the tackle management category, that tackle box right there, the Busby basic deep uh urchin bait box, one best of show. So I don't think it's a fad anymore, because I mean it's been a couple of years now. We first saw we first saw this type of bait, um, me anyways, personally. Yeah, I believe it was Nova Scotia or New Brunswick a few years ago. The uh Black Bass Championship. Right. And um I thought, what in the hell is that? But uh obviously I was behind the curve on that one because it had already been going on for a year or two, and now it's just gone nuts.

SPEAKER_00 56:56

And what's interesting, so apparently the backstory it was called a koiki, I think I'm pronouncing that right. And it was in like it was invented in like the 80s in Japan, and it was big in Japan then, uh, just never caught on over here, and all of a sudden it just kind of exploded over here within the last year or so, maybe two years. Um but it was interesting also seeing a lot of the Japanese companies that weren't involved in this market seem to be throwing a lot of things at the market right now. Um, probably to take advantage of this, like baits that were big over there never caught these companies are are looking at this as like a gold mine. Like maybe we can just throw something else in there that might might catch. Because people are paying like $200 for the original because there's so much on back order. Like it's crazy what people are willing to do to get these baits. It's no different than the fashion world, though, boys.

SPEAKER_02 57:44

You know what uh what's out is in, right? Every everything is is is cyclical. And maybe maybe we should look at this as nothing more than that. It it worked somewhere years ago. Why can't it work again today? Right? That's kind of concept. On the other side of that coin, too. I really do think that if we analyze the baits that we use today and really, you know, dig down deep and and and put it all together, how many of the baits that we use today you can honestly say, with maybe the odd exception. Yeah, yeah, that's an identical blank, whatever that blank is. That's a c you know that looks just like a blank. A lot of the baits that we use today and do well with, in most cases, we say, What the hell is this to a fish? Yeah, whether it's the color, the shape, the presentation, it's something different. And maybe that's what this is. This is capitalizing on the fact that freshwater fish don't get a chance to see something like that uh every day of the week. And so when it kind of drops into their environment, they whoa, you know, have that effect. Maybe I don't know. But uh apparently they're getting bigger and bigger too. What started out as a tiny little uh bait now has uh we saw some at at the show that were gigantic. There was one there that was like looked like it was like three inches round, and then the legs another six inches out from it. So I don't know what they're gonna do with those, but I'm sure somebody will fish them. But anyways, that's the big trend right now, no doubt about it. Um terminal tackle up again, an urchin rig. Yeah, the the uh uh G rat baits.

SPEAKER_00 59:35

Yeah, because that's also been the trend that I've been seeing is people are buying these and they're like, okay, well, how do I fish the? And I know that and you were playing around with them in the shop back there, and you were looking at, you know, can carp fishing gear help us fish this? Because it's hard to drop shot. It's too like it's just it's such an awkward bait. I think people are now experimenting with different ways to rig them, and this one won the category. Um, so I'm I'm sure something like this might take off for people who are just getting into it, yeah. But there's a lot of experimenting right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

And the one that really uh hit it out of the park for me is the next category is coolers, and it just shows you where we're going today in the fishing industry because uh the winner of coolers was the uh angle three bottle wine and champagne cooler. It is a beautiful product. Okay, but does it belong in a fishing show? Does it belong to yeah? Should it be winning best of category in any absolutely not, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:36

That's just it's a little blasphemous, honestly. But I think it also that speaks to the where the show has gone. Yeah, right? We got no one there, it's going downhill. You have excuse my French, but you have wine coolers winning best of show. Yeah, like that's just it's just just getting into a level of insanity. I remember the first year, I think it was that we went with Dean a while back. It was just post-COVID and it was booming. Yeah. And I remember you even made a comment being like, wow, this is the busiest I've seen it in like 10 years. Yeah. Well, it's only been about four since that, and it has fallen right off.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:17

Because there were categories, and we had some protest non-votes. I remember you and um and you and I were saying that we just couldn't vote in some of these categories because there were literally one product in them. So default, I know the f in uh fly reels, it was just one fly reel. So it's like you're not really getting a true representation of what actually deserves to win these categories and what act like which companies are innovating because people just aren't showing up.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:44

So yeah, it's it's it's uh we don't want to sound like we're down on the uh whole iCast concept, but uh, I I think it needs to be freshened up a little bit. That's all. Hey, listen, it happens to all businesses after a while. Uh especially if you become complacent and you're happy with the way things are going and you stop or tune out, you know, your constituents, uh you find out that maybe you should have been listening instead of talking. And I think this is the case with iCast.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:18

Yeah, and to me, I think the I mean, I think, like you said, the location would be a big one. But the other one that I think would inject some life into it is opening up one day to the public because there's no pressure on these companies to really show up and innovate because the public well the public isn't there, the rest of the industry is kind of complacent and everything just being kind of slow. But having a day where the public can show up and really interact with these new products, um, I think would inject a lot of life and excitement into it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:48

Yeah, we talked about that there and and I've given it a bit of thought uh since since then. I don't know whether they could physically do it because they're what we're talking about is two totally different uh shows, right? Because the the manufacturers, distributors um that are showcasing their products, they would have to completely change their exhibits. Right. And keep in mind there is no there are no sales made at iCast. So could you have a consumer event without selling product?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:26

I don't know if you yeah, I guess I mean show up only like people are very invested in the product.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:32

I feel like you might industry. You might not even necessarily need to tell them, but also I I I think that if iCast does allow consumers to come in, then the companies are going to compensate for that and there will be product to purchase. At the very least, there'll be order forms.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:48

But they can you can get it shipped to you, but they can't because these are not retailers, these exhibitors are not retailers.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:55

Not all of them. Okay, but they're they don't retail.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:59

So couldn't you do something like the sportsman show where you have a lot of these companies who aren't selling directly, but then you have a few retailers that show up and open big booths, right? So that would work too.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:10

So you would have to have uh the retail element brought in, right? Right. Uh so that somebody who's in the retail, maybe and I don't want to, I mean, Bass Pro Shops, uh, whatever. Sale sale. Uh somebody could say, okay, uh, I want to be the retailer of record for iCast. So I will look after the retail part of I don't even know whether that would work. Because another retail, how do you how do you how do you become the retailer on record? It would be insane. I I I love the idea of opening it up to the consumer so that they could see new products. But I think the real interest there would be for consumers to be able to buy these new products. Then you could cause that frenzy.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:00

Especially if the best in show is already like the first two days are how it is now. So the best in show has already been voted on. So that person would that company would really benefit, right? Because everyone walking in the door now knows who the best in show is, and to have that product for sale, it would be I it would just be a big injection of life into the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:18

But yeah, we're we're saying that just for for the optics, yeah. But from if I'm there, if I'm one of the uh manufacturers that's there, uh my interest is in spending time with my my buying community, the the the uh distributors, the wholesalers, and the retailers who are going to iCast to book their their um products for the following season.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:45

But they're not there.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:46

But they're not there, they're not there.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:48

So you can you know that's that's that's wonderful that they want to hang out with distributors, but when there's one distributor there in the three day event, you're not gonna get a chance to talk to them if you're a little guy.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:57

We used that's what we used to do is go down there and do what was called. Booking orders. So we would sit down with um these companies like a Shimano or whoever was there, and we would sit down and do our whole season's ordering from them for the whole year in advance. We do it at iCast. So they're busy. They're busy taking those orders from retailers, trust me. But I don't know, man. I really I love the idea of a consumer version of iCast. Talk about insanity for the consumer. What a great opportunity that would be. They would, they would, if there was buying opportunity there, I think they would come in droves. Now, would they go to Orlando? Right? Other than the local community, would would anybody drive to Orlando to go to a consumer version of iCast?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:50

Big bass guys in the southern states, maybe, but I agree. If if it was in Vegas, I could see people making a trip out of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:57

That would be huge. Yeah. Right? That would be huge. Because Vegas is that type of destination where you can work it, weave it into your vacation time or whatever, because it makes sense. But Orlando now, I I don't know. Anyways, uh for folks uh connected with Orlando, don't take this as negative. It's a wonderful place, but I think it's time iCast moved out of there, my opinion. Um how about what else? What else? I'll tell you what I what highlight for me was to see uh a couple of the uh the legends, the old timers um down there still actively working in the at their trade. And and of course, the most notable Bill Dance. He's still the hot ticket down there, isn't he?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:44

Him and Steve Harvey this year. Yeah, yeah. That was pretty neat.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:48

You were pretty puffed up about the Steve Harvey.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:51

I love I have a very close connection with Family Feud. Really? Whenever I am in a hotel, it is always either Big Bang Theory or Family Feud. No kidding. And that's it, because it's it's really the only thing that's like on.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:04

You know, it's like even hell, just after ICAS, I flew into to Montreal, and I'll tell you, there's Big Bang Theory on that or uh uh Family Feud on that TV. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Steve Harvey's like a mythical creature for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:18

So to to to Nick's point, that they had a panel of uh that consisted of uh Steve Harvey, Bill Dance, Bill Dance, and uh um president of something. Oh Johnny Morse, uh owner and president of uh uh Bass Pro Shops. But it's it was nice, it's nice that they still worship and and honor their icons. Um so it was refreshing. I always love saying, of course, we spent some time with with Jimmy Houston, uh who's the coolest dude on the planet still. I was saying to to you, Dean, that he's gotta be the most identifiable uh sports personality human on the planet. Maybe human. Like you cannot like Jimmy is the most I don't care. Yeah, you're right. Most uh identifiable human on the planet. Um you can never mistake him for anybody else, or vice versa. Uh so he's still going strong.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:15

And um, I feel like anybody who walks by him would in any situation would be like, Oh, I feel like I I know that guy. Yeah, like like I feel like I've seen him somewhere, he's just so unique.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:26

Yeah. We didn't see some of the lesser lights. Um lesser lights to me younger uh stars of the industry. I I don't know why, but normally I see them all. But uh I didn't run into anybody, didn't see them. Maybe uh they weren't there, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:42

Well, I think that ties into the exact same thing we were talking about earlier. People just aren't going to the show. I didn't see a Scott Martin. No, I didn't see any and I didn't see Wheeler. Oh, we saw Coop.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:52

Oh, yeah, Coop.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:52

We saw Coop and uh apparently the Johnston brothers were there, yeah. And I think he said Gussie was there too. Okay, but we just we didn't run into them, no, no. Um so our Canadian counterparts uh made their way down. For sure. That was nice then. Uh at least so many.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:08

Um anything else from that show that you boys want to share before I uh put the hook on?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:15

No, I think I'm uh I'm very curious. I know um we have Stephen Cook who's been wanting to come on to talk about this trend um when when we told him we were heading down to ICAS. So we're gonna have him on next week to kind of break down the science of this whole trend because uh we have trouble figuring it out, and no one we talked to down there gave us a good explanation of what's going on. So it'll be cool to get that to get that perspective.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:40

Alrighty. Uh contest ongoing. Uh people they need to sign up. Don't sign up.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:46

We're uh we're we're less than a month out now. Okay. All right. We do need a bonus code. Oh, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:53

We should have snuck it in earlier in the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:55

Yeah, like I thought you guys. Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:57

I you know what? You know what? Hey, can you edit it? I can. Can we do it? Can we do it right now and then you take this and edit it at the beginning? Yeah, let's do that.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:06

All right. On the count of three, we're just gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna let pretend like this never happened.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:12

All right. All right. The um I think that we should use urchin as the code for today's show. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:21

Um, I think we should do iCast instead.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:26

Okay. I think iCast is a wonderful idea. Why is that, by the way? Uh the listeners don't need to know. All right. iCast it is. If you want the extra uh bonus uh ballots in the contest, you need to go to the appropriate spot on fishingcanada.com's contest page and where it says bonus code, you need to put iCast. Now, are there any requirements on this? Oh, capitals, no spaces, no spaces, no iPhone, nothing, no nothing, just no cast.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:03

I C A S T.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:05

Come on now. Uh-huh. On that note, uh, kiddies, we will bid you an adieu. Thank you for allowing us to uh share some of our experiences with you, and thank you for your time. Um Mr. Bowman will be back, I believe, on the next show. Uh in fact, I have a yeah, he's gonna be back tomorrow. So he will be here. All right. Thanks, uh, Million. We will talk to you soon on behalf of the entire team. Uh Nikki V uh Dean Taylor, I'm Angelo Biola. Uh talk to you soon. This episode of Outdoor Journal Radio has been brought to you in part by the Invasive Species Center, protecting Canada's land and water from invasive species. Freedom Cruise Canada, rent the boat, own the memories. And JMB Cycle a Marine, your home for all things power sports, boats, and equipment.