The holiday season is upon us, and that means after everyone fills their bellies on Thanksgiving Day, many of them will be getting busy with Christmas shopping. We took a look through some of our favorite products from ICAST 2024 and found a bunch of good gift ideas for your favorite angler that are available right now, in no particular order!
Bates Hundo LTS and Goat SWM Baitcasters
The new Bates Hundo LTS And Bates GOAT SWM bait casters are some of the finest built baitcasting fishing reels we’ve ever fished with. The construction is impeccable clean and solid being crafted out of solid 6061-T6 bar stock aluminum block. The Hundo LTS will appeal to the bait finesse system anglers with it’s lower gearing, shallow spool and clickable 8-pound drag. It’s perfect for braid and small fluoro alike and I’ve loved fishing for all sorts of fish this fall with that reel.
The GOAT SWM offers a rock solid swimbait reel that casts well and handles the hardest hook sets and torque of trophy sized bass like you would expect a solid 6061-T6 bar stock aluminum swimbait reel to perform. I’ve caught some big bass this fall on it already and am excited to fish it a full season when the big fish come to play in the spring. It features an oversized handle and knobs, 10 ball bearings, 18-pound drag system and 32 inches of take up per handle turn. It’s a heck of a good reel for big bait fishing.
Grundens Bedrock Wading Boots and Waders
Grundéns entered the waders and wading boot market a couple years ago and their new Bedrock Waders and Boots are both available now for anglers looking for both quality and a solid price to performance option for wading.
The Bedrock Wading Boots are built with durability in mind thanks to a water-friendly synthetic upper combined with scratched-rubber overlays in high-wear zones to keep wear, tear, and material breakdown to a minimum. They are comfortable, stylish and built to last several seasons.
The Bedrock Waders feature an ultra-dense 100% nylon outer combined with a durable 4-layer puncture-resistant lamination finish and boasts a 30K+ submerged waterproof rating. Their proprietary wading mobility patterns make moving around in the river and river bank easy with these waders.
Hardy Averon Fly Reel
The Hardy Averon fly reel offers extremely lightweight yet durable machined frames that blend performance, low start up intertia and quality disc drag design to make a perfect reel for fly anglers who want a large profile and features to handle techniques like streamer fishing and euro nymphing. This is a stylish large arbor design with an open frame that gives you top level performance for however you like to fly fish.
Shimano Vanford A Spinning Reel
The Shimano Vanford A offers workhorse performance with quality, durability and sensitivity for finesse and light line fishing alike. The smooth performance is felt in everything from opening the bail to battling hard pulling fish with a silky smooth drag. The 500 size reel offers one of the smoothest operations you will find in an ultralight reel with an impressive seven ball bearings, silky smooth drag, 5.6:1 gear ratio and 27 inches of line pickup on each handle turn. Read more about it in our review of the Shimano Vanford A.
Level NGX Rod
The Level NGX rod balances performance and price perfectly to give anglers high quality and sensitivity with great action and power in a performance based rod. These rods feature Japanese Toray 30/40-ton carbon blanks, Carbon X-Wrap for added strength, Fuji K Frame guides with Alconite inserts for sensitivity and a lightweight carbon infused reel seat that enhances comfort and feel. Read more about it in our review of the Level NGX.
Island Optics Mako XL
Offering oversized frames to block out more light and give you a much bigger viewing angle and coverage, the Mako XL frames are lightweight, comfortable and offer superior visibility into the water for better fishing. With double swinging hinges, comfortable nose and ear pads, and proprietary lens technology that offers oleophobic protection, scratch resistance, hydrophobic resistance and more, the Mako XL offers high end performance at half the cost as other brands. You get 2X performance for half price. Read more about them in our review of the Island Optics Mako XL.
Bucca Brand Trick Shad Swimbait
If you want to get into big swimbaits but don’t want to break the bank, then the Bucca Brand Trick Shad is going to be the swimbait you want. It has a very nice swim, beautiful paint and features and the cost makes it well worth the investment. This is going to be a big player for a lot of anglers we predict in 2025. So be sure to grab one while you can this holiday season.
Rapala Crush City Mooch Minnow
This hotly anticipated minnow bait has been the secret weapon of the Rapala pros and was just released to the public right before Thanksgiving. So be sure to grab several packs before they sell out or snag them on the next run and restock. They small minnow offers a tail that kicks and shudders no matter how little you move the bait. It offers an ultra-realistic look to pressured bass on a small ball head jig. You can fish it as a hover strolling bait, drop shot, Chatterbait trailer and more.
Gamakatsu Horizon Head Weedless Jighead
This awesome take on a minnow jighead offers the perfect combination of keeper, profile and weed guard and of course the sharpest, stickiest, strongest hooks you can expect from Gamakatsu. The wider gap makes hooking big fish a lot easier and gives the bait a better action on the shake.
Z-Man Evo Tungsten Chatterbait
Another hot bait this fall has been the Z-Man EVO Tungsten Chatterbait that features a super sharp hook, hard head for better sensitivity and casting, and beautifully tied skirts that complete the affordable and fish catching options on this must-have new chatterbait.
Eurotackle Nage 2.75 Swimbait
This new mini swimbait from Eurotackle will be all the rage with bait finesse and ultralight anglers who want a small swimbait that will catch everything from bluegills to big bass. It features three segments that allow it to be slow rolled, burned and jerked to dart back and forth, the Nage weighs just 3/16 ounce and comes in several fishy looking colors sure to trick the wariest of fish. This is one of those baits you just go fish and it will catch anything because it looks like food to so many kinds of fish.
Great Lakes Juvy Craw
This dynamite take on a tube offers a crawfish profile in a tube bait that makes it not only for big smallmouth waters, but it’s equally deadly on small creeks and rivers where smallmouth roam. I’ve caught largemouth off the beds, smallmouth in current on creeks and big bass off the main lake on this unique plastic craw tube. The double laminate colors make the Juvy Craw even more appealing.
Seaguar R18 Fluro and PEX8 Braid
Bringing their best lines from Japan to the states, Seaguar’s announcement of the R18 Fluorocarbon and PEX8 Braid was well received at ICAST. And now anglers can start stocking up on these ultra thin diameter, high-performance lines out of Japan from Seaguar. Boasting best-in-class strength and suppleness, the Seaguar R18 gives anglers a 100% fluorocarbon performance fishing line that stays virtually invisible. Seaguar’s double-structure process combines 2 custom fluorocarbon resins that add to this line’s knot and tensile strength.
The Seaguar PEX8 Lure Edition Braided Fishing Line uses 8-braids to form a smoother line that also offers 22% thinner diameter than other braids. This ultra-sensitive line has no stretch and resists abrasion, making it perfect for light-biting fish and finesse techniques.
Crappie Magnet Hammer Kit
The Hammer Kit comes complete with six of the best colors hand-picked by top crappie professional anglers in the new Crappie Magnet Hammer. It also features two sizes of the new Hammer Head Eye Hole Jig that allows you to put scent pellets in the head for added attraction. The Hammer features ribs and a divided tail that displace more water, trap air bubbles and give you a bigger crappie profile for pursuing the big crappie in your waters.
High Camp Flasks
These are some of the coolest drinkware products we’ve used this year and you can get them as a great classy Christmas gift for your favorite outdoorsman or drink lover. These flasks can hold everything to include but not limited to coffee, water, wine and whiskey. I’ve used the small Torch Flask for taking a sip of bourbon on fishing trips with the guys and the big 750 ml Firelight Flask has been great for everything from tailgating with the wife and sipping on wine to taking in the blind full of coffee to share.
These flasks are incredibly well designed with magnetically attached cups, sealed screw on lids, removable bottoms (on the Torch) for easy drink filling, and a whole lot more. If you’re looking for a special gift for a person who loves their drink, this is the one.
Yeti Rambler Drinkware
There are a host of new Yeti Rambler products and accessories new for this year that are available at retailers already from drink bottles, to lid accessories and mugs. There is something for everyone regardless of what drinks they like and want to take with them on the go. These are all super durable, with multiple color options with accessories to be able to pack in your fishing and travel bag and go.
Toadfish Line Nippers
Every angler needs a good pair of snips for quick knot tying, lure changes and more. The Toadfish Line Nippers offer a wide handle design that you can connect to your belt with a retractable tether or clip onto vest or lanyard for fast access to a handy cutting tool that works great and is easier to use than small clippers.
