We Came Looking for a Top 10. ICAST 2026 Had Other Plans.

Every year we walk into ICAST with the same plan: keep a running list of the ten products that genuinely stand out. Not the loudest booth, not the biggest marketing campaign, and definitely not the bait with the brightest paint job. We’re looking for the gear that makes us stop mid-conversation and say, “Yep… I’m buying that.”

This year that plan lasted about two hours.

ICAST 2026 was absolutely loaded with new technology, smarter terminal tackle, refined swimbaits, forward-facing sonar-specific innovations, and a few products that solved problems anglers have been complaining about for years. By the end of the first day, our “Top 10” list already had 14 items on it, and we were still finding more. So, we gave up trying to force it and decided to do what felt right: a Top 15.

One thing became obvious as we walked the aisles of the Convention Center: companies aren’t just releasing another worm or another crankbait anymore. They’re building tools for the way we fish today. FFS continues to shape lure design, finesse keeps getting finer, and manufacturers are paying attention to efficiency, hookup ratios, durability, and the little details that matter when you’re trying to get one more bite before check-in.

These are the products that kept coming up in conversation long after we left the booth. The ones we’d spend our own money on. The ones we’re already trying to make room for in the boat.

Great Lakes Finesse isn't a rookie on this list. They cracked our Top 10 last year with the Micro Drop Tail Minnow and their underspin, and if anybody had doubts about whether that was a one-hit wonder, this bait should put those to rest. These guys are innovating year after year, and they're not going anywhere.

The Stay-Pinned Spy Bait solves a problem every spybait angler already knows in their bones: you get a smallmouth to eat on that painfully slow, dead-straight retrieve, and then you lose it right at the boat because a standard spybait only has two belly-mounted trebles holding on for dear life. Great Lakes Finesse added a third, top-mounted "Breakaway" hook that stays locked in place through the fight but pops free the second you set - no extra leverage for the fish to throw against. Pair that with the Water-Through-Gill design that lets you actually feel the bait shimmying on a dead-slow crawl, and this is the bait for clear-water, pressured smallmouth that follow and follow and never quite commit. Throw it on points, suspended brush, and open basins in that 8-to-20-foot zone and just let it breathe.

What continues to impress us is the company behind the bait. Great Lakes Finesse keeps proving they understand where bass fishing is going, not where it’s been. They’re not chasing trends, they’re helping create them. If last year’s Micro Drop Minnow announced their arrival, the Staypinned Spy Bite confirms they’re here to stay.

Some products are cool. Others make you immediately start thinking about how many fish they’re going to catch – Bait-Pop was one of those products.

If you've spent any time staring at your forward-facing sonar wondering why you can see the fish perfectly but can't find your own bait on the screen, Bait-Pop is about to become one of those "how did I fish without this" products.

This is a pharmacist-compounded attractant doing two jobs at once, and both of them matter. First, it's a scent and taste formula built to draw strikes and cancel out the negative scents on your bait that can make a fish flare off before it ever commits - sunscreen, gas, whatever your hands picked up in the boat that day. Second, and this is the part that's turning heads on the show floor, it's got a Sparklscales visual stimulator baked in that instantly changes the look of your lure and puts off a slow-release trail through the water column that triggers a predatory response fish can't ignore. On top of all that, it noticeably enhances how your bait shows up on forward-facing sonar, anglers are even running it on their line so it reads like a rope on the screen instead of disappearing into the noise. University studies back up that the Original Fish Formula puts more fish in the boat, and it's already in the boat bag of guys like Bill Dance and Scott Martin. When your bait matches your screen instead of guessing at it, you stop working blind, and that's the whole game with FFS.

If you read our ICAST 2025 Top 10, you probably remember the WakeWalker from Throwback Baits making the list. We said then that they were one of the most exciting up-and-coming companies in the swimbait world, and after spending time with the Metro Glide, we’re even more convinced.

The Metro Glide hits a sweet spot that a lot of glide baits miss. It has a wide, lazy glide that looks incredible on a slow retrieve, but it’s still compact enough that you won’t feel like you’re committing to throwing a giant bait all day. It hunts naturally, responds to cadence changes, and has that “one more cast” factor that the best swimbaits always seem to have.

What really stands out is the price. In a world where premium glide baits can get painfully expensive, the Metro Glide swims like a bait that should cost a whole lot more. It tracks straight, has excellent hardware, and is the kind of bait you’ll actually want to fish around real cover instead of treating it like a collector’s item.

And honestly, part of the reason we’re rooting for this company is the people behind it. The Throwback crew are some of the coolest dudes we’ve met in the industry - passionate anglers, genuinely good people, and the kind of guys you’d want to spend a day in the boat with. Watching their continued success has been awesome, and the Metro Glide feels like another big step forward for the brand.

Rapala had a strong show overall, but the Avatar Shad was the bait we kept coming back to. It’s a soft swimbait designed with a much more refined, natural baitfish profile than many of the bulkier paddle tails on the market. The body shape, tail design, and overall balance give it a subtle swimming action that looks incredibly realistic at slow speeds.

This is the kind of bait that excels when fish are feeding on small, narrow-profile forage like smelt, shiners, or juvenile perch. It comes alive on a finesse jig head, but it also looks fantastic on a hover-style rig, a light belly-weighted hook for suspended fish, or even a trailer on your favorite chatter bait.

What we liked most was how little input it needed. You don’t have to burn it or constantly manipulate it to get action. A steady retrieve is enough to make the tail kick naturally while the body maintains a tight, realistic roll. That’s a big deal for pressured fish that have seen every exaggerated swimbait action under the sun.

Built from Super TPE, the Avatar Shad floats when rigged unweighted and holds up shockingly well to repeated strikes. If you spend time chasing open-water smallmouth, spotted bass, or even walleye, put the Avatar Shad on your radar. It has all the ingredients of a bait that quietly becomes a staple in a lot of boats.

The original ClapTail 110 came out of a close collaboration between Rapala and Jacob Wheeler, and it immediately built a reputation for producing violent, explosive topwater strikes thanks to a distinctive metal-on-metal prop-and-blade collision you can hear across the lake. This year, Rapala and Wheeler went back to the drawing board together and rolled out the ClapTail 75 and ClapTail 90 - smaller siblings that keep every bit of that signature two-tone racket in a package that lets you match forage and target species the 110 was just a little too big for.

Same durable build, same balanced-weight design for long, accurate casts, and the same belly swivel that reduces leverage and keeps fish pinned once they eat. More sizes just means more water this bait can cover, and given how well the original produces, we're expecting the smaller ClapTails to be just as much of a problem for bass this season.

This bait is made for covering water around shallow grass, shade lines, seawalls, and schooling fish. The body stays stable at a wide range of retrieve speeds, so you can crawl it, wake it, or speed it up when fish get aggressive. We immediately started thinking about low-light summer mornings, bluegill around shallow cover, and those magical evenings when bass start wolf-packing bait on the surface.

It also has something that’s hard to quantify: personality. The ClapTail doesn’t look like another copycat topwater. It has its own sound, its own action, and its own vibe. Those are the baits that tend to stick around because anglers remember the first fish they caught on them.

Rapala didn't just bring one standout bait to Orlando this year, they brought several. One that kept drawing us back in a sea of Urchins, was “The CEO.”

If you've spent much time around forward-facing sonar over the last couple seasons, you've watched finesse creature baits explode in popularity. Fish are getting conditioned to traditional minnow profiles, and anglers have been searching for something that offers a completely different look while still remaining subtle. The CEO Urchin does exactly that.

It's built with Super TPE and a weighted glass-powder core, so it falls with a subtle, natural twitch straight out of the package instead of just plummeting straight down like a lot of these urchin-style baits do.

The tapered legs are doing real work here - they create movement on the fall without any input from you, which matters enormously with forward-facing sonar, where you're watching a fish sit motionless and need your bait to look alive while barely moving. It's a small bait built for a technique where "small and subtle" is exactly the point, and Rapala clearly put real R&D time into nailing the fall rate instead of just slapping legs on a ball of plastic and calling it a day.

As more anglers move beyond traditional minnow presentations, don't be surprised if this becomes one of the hottest finesse baits of 2027.

Every bass fisherman has looked over the side of the boat and watched a torn-up soft plastic slowly disappear into the depths. Whether it's a Senko that got ripped in half after one fish or a paddle tail that flew off on a hard cast, we've all wondered the same thing...

"Somebody should make these things biodegradable." Most of us have had that thought - Zero Trace Baits actually did something about it.

They are a small operation out of Long Lake, Minnesota, founded by Evan Rechelbacher, who dreamed up the idea while he was still in college and spent a year and a half dialing in the formula as his senior capstone project. These baits are made from a gelatin-and-glycerin bioplastic blend - genuinely food-grade, kitchen-safe material, not a marketing spin on the phrase. Infused with amino-acid-derived scent that's water-soluble and pulls fish in from further off than you'd expect. Lose one in the lake or snap one off in a stump, and instead of adding another piece of plastic to the water column forever, it breaks down completely in about a week under summer water temps. They hold up fine through roughly an hour of active fishing, which is more than enough for a days' worth of rigging changes. This is a genuinely different kind of company, built by someone who clearly loves these waters as much as he loves fishing them, and we think it deserves every bit of attention it's getting.

For more than five decades, Seaguar has been the name synonymous with fluorocarbon - they pioneered the category back in 1971 and never really looked back. This year, for the first time ever, they turned that same engineering obsession loose on monofilament, and the result is Brawlr. Seaguar didn't build Brawlr to replace mono's strengths - the buoyancy, the forgiveness, the value - they built it to fix mono's traditional weaknesses.

Using a proprietary resin formulation and their Pinpoint Thermal Dynamics manufacturing process, Brawlr comes out thinner in diameter for its strength class, with noticeably better knot and tensile strength and a low-stretch build that gives you real sensitivity you don't typically associate with monofilament. It's available in both standard clear and a low-visibility green, running from 2 to 30-pound test. When a company that's spent 50-plus years perfecting fluorocarbon decides monofilament is worth their engineering time, that tells you something about how much room there was left to improve on it - and we think anglers are going to notice the difference.

There's been a quiet resurgence of monofilament over the last few seasons. As anglers continue to specialize techniques, more fishermen are rediscovering that not every application calls for fluorocarbon or braid. Baits like walking baits, squarebills, wake baits, whopper ploppers, heck even some glide baits or jerkbaits if you’re trying to run shallow.

Sometimes mono is simply the better tool. And when Seaguar decides to enter a category they've ignored for decades, you pay attention.

Urchin baits took over the show floor this year, and with that trend came the inevitable headache: how do you actually rig these things right? Gamakatsu had a handful of answers on display, but the one that stopped us in our tracks didn't even have a name on the tag yet.

It's a double-hook EWG rig, built along the same lines as a frog hook, but with a split ring and swivel worked directly into the design instead of a fixed eye. That swivel is the whole story here; urchin baits are notoriously prone to twisting up your line on the fall and on the retrieve thanks to all those legs and appendages spinning in the water, and building the swivel straight into the hook itself kills that line twist at the source instead of making you rig a separate swivel above it. The extra-wide gap keeps the legs and body flaring out naturally instead of folding shut around the hook point, and the double-hook frog-style bend gives you two points of contact working in your favor on the hookset instead of one. Gamakatsu hasn't put a name on it yet, but it was sitting right there in the urchin accessory lineup at the show, and it's the kind of purpose-built piece of hardware that tells you a company is taking a trend seriously instead of just slapping their logo on whatever's already out there. Keep an eye out for this one, we'd bet it gets a name and a wide release before the season's out.

Every few years Shimano updates a reel that becomes the benchmark for an entire generation of bass fishermen. This year...It was the Curado DC.

Truthfully, we expected it to be good. We didn't expect it to feel this refined. Shimano somehow managed to take one of the most trusted baitcasters in fishing and make it smoother, quieter, and even more intuitive.

The Curado DC has been a workhorse in Shimano's lineup for years, and the fully updated 150A takes everything that made it great and sharpens every edge of it. The heart of the reel is Shimano's updated I-DC4 digital braking system - an onboard microcomputer monitoring spool speed 1,000 times per second and applying exactly the right amount of brake pressure on the fly. Translation: fewer backlashes, longer casts, and way less babysitting your thumb through the whole cast.

It's built on Shimano's rigid HAGANE all-metal body for zero flex under load, paired with an MGL Spool III for reduced startup inertia so lighter lures come off the reel clean instead of stuttering. Four separate DC braking modes let you tune it specifically for maximum distance, braid or mono, fluorocarbon, or nasty wind and skipping situations, and the Cross Carbon Drag gives you smooth, consistent stopping power that isn't going to fade over a long day of fighting fish. This is the reel that made a lot of anglers believe in digital control braking in the first place, and the 150A proves Shimano isn't resting on that reputation.

The newest version somehow manages to improve on an already legendary platform. That's harder than it sounds.

If there's one bait that has absolutely earned its reputation over the last decade, it's the chatterbait. It catches fish everywhere.

We all know exactly how much of a hammer a chatterbait can be in the bass world, it’s one of the most successful lures ever made. Now imagine that same thump shrunk down and built into an inline spinner, and you've got the ChatterTail.

This one came straight from chatterbait inventor Ronny Davis himself, who spent five years refining the idea of putting a vibrating blade onto a classic inline spinner profile. The result is a direct body-to-blade connection that delivers continuous, unmistakable vibration and an erratic baitfish wobble at literally any retrieve speed, finished off with a hand-tied marabou tail that breathes even on the pause. Available in 1/16, 1/8, and 1/4-ounce sizes, this thing is going to absolutely destroy panfish and trout in rivers, streams, and ponds, and don't sleep on it for smallmouth and largemouth either, it's an inline spinner with a chatterbait's soul, and that's a combination nobody had built correctly until now.

Despite its size, the bait still delivers the signature vibration chatterbait anglers know so well. It hunts naturally, starts vibrating immediately, and can be paired with countless micro trailers to completely change its profile.

There's a reason finesse fishing continues getting smaller every year. The forage is getting smaller. The fish are getting smarter.

The ChatterTail fits perfectly into that equation, and we have a feeling it's going to become a staple for anglers who enjoy downsizing without sacrificing action.

Sometimes innovation isn't creating something entirely new. Sometimes it's bringing back an idea that simply deserves another chance. The new Strike King Two-Time Spinnerbait immediately caught our attention because... honestly... you just don't see baits like this anymore. The dual-wire arm design creates an incredibly balanced presentation that tracks noticeably straighter than traditional spinnerbaits, especially when winding through heavy cover.

That might sound like a small detail. It isn't.

That dual-arm setup does two things really well. First, it collapses instantly on the bite, which means those maddening short strikes that used to come off clean now turn into solid hookups thanks to a long-shank 5/0 hook that doesn't even need a trailer hook to back it up. Second, running blades off two arms instead of one gives the whole bait a straighter, more stable track through the water - no rolling, no blowing out on a fast retrieve, just a true, consistent path through structure and grass. The twin arms double as a built-in weedguard too, so this thing is going to cruise through cover that would hang up a traditional spinnerbait, all while putting out more flash and vibration from the extra blade real estate. This is a genuinely different take on a bait style that hasn't changed much in decades.

Whether you're slow rolling it over grass, waking it around shallow wood, or burning it across wind-blown flats, this spinnerbait feels incredibly refined. It's one of those lures that reminds you why spinnerbaits have caught giant bass for generations.

Another one that made our Top 10 last year - except last year it was the bigger version of this swimbait, the Hog Father Jr., built in partnership with Matt McBee of Tater Hog Custom Lures. That collaboration brought a premium, hand-built glidebait design down to a mass-produced price point, and it was an instant hit. This year, Strike King and Tater Hog went back to the drawing board and built the Hustlin' Hog - the same DNA in a much smaller, 5-inch, 7/8-ounce package.

Don't let the size fool you. This thing punches way above its profile, delivering the same distinctive swimming action that made the original Hog Father a legend, whether you're working it on a slow, steady retrieve or ripping it with sharp reel snaps. That versatility matters most when the bite gets tough and big bass start refusing the full-size glide - the Hustlin' Hog gives you the same swimbait presentation and Tater Hog pedigree in a bait that's easier to get a bite on when fish get finicky. Same great swimbait, smaller package, built for exactly the days you need it.

Glide baits have earned a reputation for producing giant fish, but they've also earned a reputation for intimidating anglers. Big rods. Big reels. Big price tags. And sometimes, a bait that's simply too much for the conditions.

That's exactly why the new Strike King 2.5 Bitsy Glide caught our attention.

Instead of building another oversized trophy bait, Strike King went in the opposite direction. They created a compact glide bait that delivers all the hunting action and drawing power of its bigger cousins in a profile that matches the forage bass see every day. Whether they're chasing juvenile perch, bluegill, shad, or young-of-the-year baitfish, the Bitsy Glide simply looks right.

You don't need dedicated swimbait gear or years of glide bait experience to make this bait work. Throw it on your everyday medium setup, make a long cast, and let the bait do the work. A slow, steady retrieve produces a smooth S-glide that looks incredibly natural, while subtle twitches of the rod make it dart and hunt just enough to trigger reaction bites from following fish.

This is the kind of bait that shines around shallow grass lines, riprap, docks, isolated wood, or anywhere bass are actively cruising and feeding. It's also a fantastic option when fish are keyed in on smaller forage and simply won't commit to a larger glide bait. There are plenty of days when downsizing is the difference between getting follows and getting bit.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway is this: the Bitsy Glide lowers the barrier to entry for glide bait fishing. It gives everyday anglers a chance to experience one of the most effective reaction bait categories in bass fishing without investing in an entirely separate setup.

We have a feeling this little bait is going to fool a lot of big fish.

Not every standout product at ICAST catches fish. Some simply make fishing better.

This one isn't "new" in the traditional sense, but if there's a piece of gear on this list that's changed the actual experience of a full day on the water more than anything else, it's this seat. And after spending real time on one, we're not sure how we fished as long as we did without it.

The Palma Horse is a saddle-style, contoured sling seat built from all-aluminum construction - no plastic components to break down or crack in the sun. The breathable mesh fabric is the whole game here: it dries almost instantly, doesn't hold morning dew, resists mold and mildew, and stays genuinely cool to sit on through a brutal summer afternoon instead of turning into a griddle like a lot of foam seats do. The design lets you sit, lean, or straddle it, which matters more than you'd think when you're covering water all day and constantly shifting position to make a cast. It mounts to virtually any existing pedestal and holds up to 400 pounds without a hint of give. You'll see this seat all over tournament boats for a reason - once you've fished off one, going back to a standard butt seat feels like a downgrade you didn't know you needed to avoid.

Sometimes the best investment isn't another bait. Sometimes it's making sure you're comfortable enough to fish hard from sun-up to sun-down.

Walking the floor at ICAST is always exciting, but every once in a while, you leave feeling like the industry just took a noticeable step forward. That's exactly how this year felt.

From companies like Great Lakes Finesse continuing to redefine modern finesse fishing, to Throwback Baits pushing affordable swimbaits to another level, to brands like Shimano, Rapala, Strike King, Gamakatsu, Seaguar, and Z-Man refining proven techniques instead of simply chasing trends, one thing became clear...Fishing tackle is becoming smarter. Manufacturers are listening to anglers. Products are becoming more technique-specific. And that's a win for everyone who spends their mornings chasing the next bite.

When we first walked through the doors in Orlando, we were convinced we'd leave with another Top 10 list. Instead, we left with fifteen products we couldn't stop talking about. Some will become staples. Some will surprise people. And a few might completely change the way we fish over the next several seasons.

One thing's for sure...We can't wait to get every single one of them on the water.

See you at ICAST 2027.