JPFish Tackle Reports · Special Edition
ICAST 2026 Special Edition
Day 2 Floor Report
Note: Special edition — supplements the monthly cycle. Floor picks only, not verified against Tackle Warehouse stocking. MSRPs are show-floor launch pricing. Full ICAST recap lands in the August issue.
Day 2 belonged to the big corporates. Where Day 1's picks skewed toward small-shop terminal tackle innovation, today's five are dominated by PRADCO and the Rapala family — polished line extensions and category refinements rather than new ideas from left field. The one wildcard is a small-company hard bait that continues the show's loudest theme: everything is being redesigned around forward-facing sonar.
Day 2 Picks
Sufix Calibr8 Braid
| Category | Braided Line · Rapala / Sufix |
|---|---|
| Status | Announced ICAST debut |
| Show MSRP | $14.99 |
| Specs | 8-carrier · 29 picks per inch · application-tuned diameters |
| Priority | P1 |
The most consequential Day 2 item for this site, because the entire nine-spool line matrix runs on Sufix. Calibr8 is a new 8-carrier superline built at 29 picks per inch — a tighter, rounder weave than most 8-carriers — and the pitch is application-specific optimization: fiber diameters are adjusted across the lb-test range so light braid behaves right on finesse spinning gear while heavy braid holds up on baitcasters. Show colors include low-vis green and neon lime, which maps cleanly onto the moss/hi-vis split the matrix already uses.
The open question is positioning against 832, which has been the house braid here for years. 832 carries a GORE fiber in the weave and a long track record; Calibr8 reads like Sufix's answer to premium Japanese 8-carriers at a mid-tier price. Until there's a published diameter chart to compare against 832 lb-for-lb, there's no reason to touch the spools.
VERDICT: WAIT — the matrix doesn't change on a trade-show pitch. If Calibr8's diameters come in thinner than 832 at the same test and TW stocks the moss/low-vis colors, it becomes a real candidate at the next respool. Watch-listed for the August issue.
Great Lakes Finesse Skirted Ned
| Category | Terminal Tackle · PRADCO / Great Lakes Finesse |
|---|---|
| Status | Announced ICAST debut |
| Show MSRP | $6.99 |
| Specs | Stand-up head · Gamakatsu 604 hook · wire-tied finesse skirt · dual cone-wire keepers |
| Techniques | Ned rig |
| Priority | P2 |
GLF takes its stand-up Ned head — the rounded-edge, weight-forward design that plants the bait nose-down and tail-up — and adds a precision wire-tied finesse skirt, hand-trimmed with fine-cut material. The tagline on the banner says it plainly: built to stand on its head. Underneath the skirt it's the proven package: super-sharp Gamakatsu 604 hook, powder-coated finish, dual cone-wire bait keeper.
What makes this interesting is where it sits. It's pitched for hitting targets and dead-sticking, and the skirt turns a Ned head into something closer to a micro finesse jig — a bridge between the Ned rig and the hair jig without committing to either. On a dead-stick, the skirt keeps breathing when the plastic isn't moving, which is exactly the sell for pressured fish staring at a motionless bait.
VERDICT: BUY — seven bucks, a Gamakatsu hook, and GLF's track record on Ned heads makes this a no-hesitation trial for the Ned box. If TW stocks it, it earns a look for the Ned guide's terminal section.
The Nasty 360
| Category | Freshwater Hard Lure · The Nasty Lure Company |
|---|---|
| Status | Announced ICAST debut |
| Show MSRP | $27.99 |
| Specs | Suspends 10–12 ft · 360° rotating hook hangers · tungsten weight-transfer ball (FFS-visible) |
| Techniques | Jerkbait, FFS deep suspending |
| Priority | P2 |
The Day 2 wildcard, and the strongest continuation of the show's FFS arms race. The Nasty 360 is a jerkbait/crankbait hybrid — jerkbait profile, crankbait thump — that suspends in the 10–12 ft band. Two features stand out. First, 360° rotating hook hangers: embedded internal swivels on the front and rear hooks, aimed at the classic suspending-bait problem of fish torquing off treble leverage. Second, an internal tungsten weight-transfer ball marketed explicitly as an FFS feature — the dense ball lights up on Forward Facing Sonar so you can watch the bait sink on screen and stop it at the fish's depth.
That 10–12 ft suspending zone is a genuinely underserved slot — most jerkbaits tap out around 8 ft — and the scope-the-sink concept slots straight into the FFS technique family. But this is a small company, a premium price, and two unproven mechanical claims (swivel hangers and true suspension are both easy to get wrong in production).
VERDICT: WAIT — the concept earns a Watch List slot, not a purchase. If the swivel hangers hold up in real-world reports and availability firms up, this becomes a candidate mention for the deep jerkbait conversation. Revisit in August.
BOOYAH Speedwalker (Flash Point Series)
| Category | Freshwater Hard Lure · PRADCO / BOOYAH |
|---|---|
| Status | Announced ICAST debut |
| Show MSRP | $14.99 |
| Sizes | 3", 4", 5" · patent-pending chin blade · upgraded trebles |
| Techniques | Walking baits, speed walking |
| Priority | P3 |
A walking bait built to be burned. The patent-pending chin blade throws flash at high retrieve speeds while the shad-style body keeps a rapid, responsive walk-the-dog cadence — the pitch is triggering reaction strikes at speeds where a standard spook washes out. Three sizes (3", 4", 5") to match forage, with upgraded treble hooks out of the box.
The niche is real: schooling fish and followers that won't commit to a measured sashay but will crush something fleeing. A blade on the chin of a walker is a legitimately different look — part walking bait, part surface spybait flash — and BOOYAH topwaters at this price have historically been solid.
VERDICT: BUY — fifteen dollars is a cheap experiment for a distinct topwater niche. The 4" is the one to try first; if it fishes as advertised, it's a candidate for a "speed walking" note in the walking baits guide.
Rapala Rap-Vault 3700 Hybrid Box
| Category | Tackle Management · Rapala |
|---|---|
| Status | Announced ICAST debut |
| Show MSRP | $29.99 |
| Specs | XPLE slotted foam + 5 fixed compartments · 10 adjustable dividers · 3 locking latches · O-ring seal · Zerust · IPX4 |
| Priority | P4 |
Rapala's new Rap-Vault storage series lands squarely at Plano Edge, and the Hybrid 3700 is the interesting configuration: one side is XPLE slotted foam for hooks and jigs, the other is 5 fixed compartments with 10 adjustable pre-cut dividers — terminal and plastics organized in a single box. The hardware is the sell: three locking latches, a watertight O-ring seal, Zerust rust prevention, and an IPX4 water rating.
One honest note on that spec: IPX4 is a splash rating, not submersion — rain and spray, not a dunk. That's still meaningfully better than a standard 3700, and at $29.99 it undercuts comparable Edge configurations while matching the rust-prevention feature set.
VERDICT: BUY — for anyone due a utility-box refresh, the hybrid foam-plus-compartment layout is a genuinely useful format for jig-heavy anglers. Verify TW stocking before any site mention.
Day 2 read
The pattern after two days: terminal tackle keeps getting smarter (GLF's skirt on a stand-up head is Day 2's version of Day 1's Top Roll), FFS is now a design requirement rather than a feature (the Nasty 360's tungsten ball exists to be seen on a screen), and the big corporates are competing on refinement and price rather than novelty. Nothing today displaces a Day 1 pick — the Top Roll remains the show's most directly actionable item for this site's readers, with Calibr8 now the one to track for the house line matrix.
Show intel only. No product in this report has been verified against Tackle Warehouse availability; MSRPs are launch-floor pricing and are not maintained. Full ICAST 2026 recap — including anything from these floor reports that survives contact with retail — arrives in the August issue.