ICAST handed out its New Product Showcase category awards for 2026, recognizing 39 new products across rods, reels, electronics, watercraft, lures, apparel, accessories, and tackle storage.
Among the biggest takeaways were Garmin’s new LiveScope 2 HD, three separate wins tied to the urchin bait trend, and multiple category wins from Shimano and St. Croix. But perhaps the biggest surprise came at the end, when a relatively simple, affordable spinning combo beat out all of them to take Best of Show.
Here are just some of the products that stood out.
Rhino Spinning Combo Takes Best of Show
The biggest award at ICAST 2026 went to the Rhino 30 6’6″ 2-piece Medium Spinning Combo, which was named the overall Best of Show winner after first taking the Rod and Reel Combo category.
The Rhino combo pairs a 6-foot, 6-inch medium-power rod with a size 30 spinning reel. The rod uses Rhino’s TriAx Core solid-tip construction, which is designed around durability, while the combo is positioned as an accessible setup rather than a highly specialized piece of premium tackle.
That makes this year’s overall winner particularly interesting. In a New Product Showcase packed with increasingly sophisticated fishing technology, voters ultimately handed the show’s biggest award to a durable, affordable rod-and-reel combo built for a broad range of anglers.
Something about this win feels very man versus machine, and I love that.
Garmin LiveScope 2 HD Wins Electronics
Speaking of electronics, Garmin picked up two category wins at the 2026 New Product Showcase, and both center on the technology that continues to reshape how anglers find and target fish.
The new LiveScope 2 HD won the Electronics category as the latest generation of Garmin’s forward-facing sonar system. Garmin says the new HD system delivers 50% more detail at closer ranges and is optimized for use out to 125 feet, with improvements aimed at producing clearer images of fish, structure, and the surrounding water.
One of the biggest changes is a simpler installation. Previous LiveScope systems relied on a separate GLS sonar module between the transducer and chartplotter. LiveScope 2 HD eliminates that additional black box, allowing the transducer to connect directly to compatible Garmin displays and power. For anglers already running multiple electronics on increasingly crowded boats, removing another component and its associated wiring could be nearly as meaningful as the image improvements.
Garmin’s second win came in Motorized Boating Accessories with the Spy Pole Mount, a separate mounting system designed to give anglers more control over where their forward-facing sonar is pointed without tying the transducer’s direction to the trolling motor.
The Urchin Trend Keeps Growing
If there was one lure trend that was impossible to miss at ICAST 2026, it was the urchin. Spiny, many-legged soft plastics showed up across the New Product Showcase and the show floor, and the trend ultimately produced winners in three separate categories.
Rapala’s CrushCity “THE CEO” 21 took the Freshwater Soft Lure category. The tiny 21mm urchin-style bait uses Super TPE with a weighted glass-powder core and tapered legs designed to create subtle movement as it falls. It’s part of a growing group of compact, unconventional finesse baits built to generate action with minimal input from the angler.
The urchin trend extended beyond soft plastics themselves. G-Ratt Baits won the Terminal Tackle category with its Urchin Rig, giving anglers a purpose-built way to fish the increasingly popular bait style.
Then there’s the problem created by all those legs. BUZBE won the Tackle Management category with its Basic Deep – Urchin Bait Box, a storage system designed specifically around the awkward shape of urchin-style baits.
VoyaX MOSSA Series Wins Boats and Watercraft
VoyaX took the Boats and Watercraft category with its MOSSA Series, an electric fishing kayak built around integrated propulsion and onboard technology.
Rather than treating an electric motor as an accessory added to a conventional fishing kayak, VoyaX designed the MOSSA as a complete electric platform. The result puts the boat squarely into one of the fastest-moving segments in fishing, where manufacturers are increasingly combining the accessibility and relatively small footprint of a kayak with the range and control traditionally associated with larger powered boats.
The MOSSA also represents a broader shift in what anglers can expect from small fishing watercraft. Electric propulsion, integrated electronics, and more sophisticated control systems are rapidly turning high-end fishing kayaks into increasingly capable alternatives to traditional boats, particularly for anglers fishing reservoirs, lakes, and protected coastal waters.
Shimano Wins Freshwater Reel and Saltwater Hard Lure
Shimano picked up two category wins with products from opposite ends of its fishing lineup.
The Curado DC 150 won Freshwater Reel, adding another award to one of Shimano’s best-known baitcasting families. The new reel brings Shimano’s digitally controlled braking technology to the Curado platform, using the DC system to manage spool speed during a cast and reduce the adjustments anglers typically make when changing lures or dealing with wind. Given the popularity of the Curado name and growing interest in DC reels, this is likely to be one of the category winners that gets the most attention from everyday anglers.
Shimano’s second win came from the Ledgerunner LR200SA, which took the Saltwater Hard Lure category. The Ledgerunner is built for offshore anglers targeting large pelagic fish, giving Shimano a win in a very different corner of the tackle market from the Curado.
St. Croix Wins Two Rod Categories
The redesigned Triumph Freshwater won the Freshwater Rod category. The updated Triumph lineup includes new casting and spinning models and remains positioned as one of St. Croix’s more accessible rod families, with the new rods starting around $130. The win gives a major nod to a series built for a much broader group of anglers than many of the highly specialized rods introduced at ICAST.
St. Croix also won best Fly Fishing Rod with its new Imperial series. Together, the two awards made St. Croix one of the few brands to leave the 2026 Showcase with wins spanning distinctly different fishing categories, from mainstream freshwater spinning and casting gear to dedicated fly tackle.
Z-Man Adds Another ChatterBait Win
Z-Man won the Wired and Skirted Lure category with the ChatterBait Elite EVO HD, the latest addition to a lure family that has become nearly synonymous with bladed jigs.
The Elite EVO HD builds on the existing Elite EVO with a heavier-duty design intended for bigger fish and heavier cover. It pairs a strengthened hook with Z-Man’s direct head-to-blade connection and the vibration and hunting action that define the ChatterBait platform. The lure also features a hand-tied silicone skirt and molded trailer keeper designed to hold soft plastics securely when fishing through cover.
ArcPro Takes the First-Time Exhibitor Award
ArcPro Fishing made its ICAST debut with a category win, taking the First-Time Exhibitor Product award for its Floating Aerator.
Designed to help keep bait and fish alive by increasing oxygen in livewells, bait tanks, and other containers, the portable aerator floats directly on the water rather than relying on a permanently installed system. That gives anglers a way to add aeration where they need it without plumbing another pump into a boat or tank.
What the 2026 Winners Say About Fishing
Taken as a whole, the 2026 New Product Showcase winners reflect a fishing industry moving in several directions at once.
Electronics continue to get more capable and more integrated. Electric propulsion is changing what anglers can expect from smaller watercraft. Forward-facing sonar has created an entire ecosystem of products around the technology itself. At the other end of the spectrum, one of the biggest trends at the show was a tiny soft-plastic urchin that spawned its own rigs, storage systems, and variations across the show floor.
Then a Rhino spinning combo won the whole thing.
For all the technology packed into the Orange County Convention Center this year, the Best of Show vote ultimately went to a relatively simple piece of fishing gear designed to be durable, accessible, and useful to a broad group of anglers.
If the 39 category winners offer any indication of where fishing is headed, there isn’t one defining direction. Some companies are pushing harder into electronics and automation. Others are finding new ways to rethink basic tackle anglers have used for decades. And sometimes the biggest idea at ICAST is still a fishing rod, a reel, or a weird little bait covered in legs.
