ICAST 2026: The New Baits Actually Worth Your Attention

Happy Monday Spacefish!

Last week the Spacefish crew went over to iCast. I went to Orlando with a simple question in mind when looking at all the new products being unveiled. Does any of this actually make fishing better for the average Central Florida angler?

Not…“Is it cool?”
Not… “Is it expensive?”

But rather…

• Will it help someone catch more redfish, snook, seatrout, or bass?
• Is it worth the money?
• Is it solving a real problem?
• Is it something I’d actually recommend to a friend?

ICAST handed out awards across 39 different product categories this year. Rods. Reels. Electronics. Boats. Sunglasses. Apparel. Storage. Accessories. The list goes on. But here’s the reality..Most of us don’t need 39 categories of new fishing products.

We need products that help us catch more fish. That’s why this review isn’t going to cover every award winner. Plenty of outlets will happily tell you about the newest electronics, the latest premium rod, or another must-have accessory that somehow costs more than your first kayak.

That’s not why I was there. As someone who spends most of his time fishing the Indian River Lagoon, the Banana River, Mosquito Lagoon, the St. Johns River, Stickmarsh and the Kissimmee Chain, I wanted to find products that the average weekend angler could realistically buy, tie on, and fish.

To me, that made the Freshwater and Saltwater Soft Bait categories the most interesting place to start. Unlike a $3,000 electronics package or a high-end rod and reel combo, a new lure is accessible. Whether you fish from a kayak, a skiff, a jon boat, or the shoreline, everyone buys baits. Better yet, a genuinely innovative lure can make an immediate difference without requiring a second mortgage or a software update.

That doesn’t mean every new bait deserves the hype. The fishing industry, like many others, has become crowded with copycats, gimmicks, and products that promise far more than they deliver. My goal isn’t to celebrate everything that’s new. It’s to identify the handful of products that actually offer something useful for anglers here in Central Florida.

So instead of reviewing all 39 award categories, I’m narrowing my focus to the products I believe have the best chance of ending up tied to the end of my line. Let’s take a look at the new baits that stood out, and more importantly, whether they’re worth a spot in your tackle box.

New Bait #1: Fishbites Fight Club Mini Mawler

Category: Saltwater Soft Bait
One of the first products that caught my eye at ICAST wasn’t a new electronic, a high-dollar rod, or another gadget promising to change fishing forever. It was a simple 3.5-inch dart bait, called the Mini Mawler.
At first glance, it looks familiar, and that’s not a bad thing. The Mini Mawler is a slim, twitch-style bait infused with Fishbites’ proven scent technology. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, Fishbites took one of the most versatile bait profiles in fishing and asked a simple question: How can we make it better?
To me, that’s exactly the kind of innovation the fishing industry needs more of. For anglers fishing the Indian River Lagoon, Mosquito Lagoon, Sebastian Inlet, or the mangrove creeks around the Space Coast, I can immediately think of several applications. Rig it on a light jighead and it should be right at home targeting spotted seatrout over grass flats, redfish cruising shorelines, juvenile tarpon rolling through the creeks, or snook around mangrove edges and docks. Its slender but compact profile should also skip exceptionally well beneath docks and mangroves – something I spend a lot of time doing.

The addition of Fishbites’ scent technology is what separates it from the dozens of similar twitch baits already on the market. We’ve all had fish bump a lure, short-strike it, or let go just before the hookset. If scent convinces a fish to hold on for another second, that can be the difference between a missed opportunity and a fish in the net.

What impressed me just as much, however, is where and how it’s made. The Mini Mawler is manufactured right here in Florida and is biodegradable; two features that deserve more attention than they often receive. As anglers who spend countless hours on the Indian River Lagoon and Florida’s other fisheries, we should appreciate companies that are thinking about the waters we fish, not just the products they sell. In a marketplace increasingly filled with overseas manufactured copycat baits, it’s refreshing to see a Florida company continuing to develop products locally while also considering their environmental impact.

Is the Mini Mawler a revolutionary new lure? Nope, and it doesn’t need to be. Sometimes the best innovation isn’t creating another gimmick. It’s taking a lure profile anglers already trust, improving it in meaningful ways, building it here at home, and offering it at a price that everyday fishermen can afford. This is exactly the kind of product I hoped to find at ICAST. It’s practical, affordable, environmentally conscious, and designed for the species Central Florida anglers actually target.

Knox’s Score: 4.8/5

New Bait #2: Z-Man MudStudZ

Category: Saltwater Soft Bait

If the Fishbites Mini Mawler impressed me because of its simplicity, the Z-Man MudStudZ caught my attention because it was built around one of the most overlooked baitfish in our estuaries, the mud minnow.

Spend enough time fishing the Indian River Lagoon, Mosquito Lagoon, or the marshes around Merritt Island, and you quickly realize that not everything keyed in on by gamefish is a finger mullet. Mud minnows, killifish, and other small marsh baitfish are an important part of the food chain, especially for redfish, snook, juvenile tarpon, and even seatrout in shallow water.

That’s exactly what Z-Man set out to imitate. Unlike many paddletails that rely on exaggerated tails and wide body rolls, the MudStudZ has a compact, natural profile with subtle movement that better resembles the way a real mud minnow swims. It isn’t designed to overpower fish with vibration; it’s designed to fool them with realism.

As someone who spends a lot of time sight-fishing shallow water from a kayak, I can immediately picture throwing this around oysters, mangrove shorelines, and muddy bottom creeks in the winter.

Another advantage is that it’s built with Z-Man’s proven ElaZtech material, meaning it should outlast many traditional soft plastics. While the initial price may be slightly higher than some competitors, the durability often means one bait survives for much longer than a traditional plastisol bait. That’s real value, not just marketing.

One of the themes I kept coming back to throughout ICAST was asking whether a product solves a real problem. In this case, I think the answer is yes. Rather than creating another copy of an existing swimbait, Z-Man focused on imitating a forage species that many anglers overlook but predators see every day.

The MudStudZ isn’t flashy, but it fills a niche that many lure companies ignore while offering the durability Z-Man has become known for. For Central Florida anglers who enjoy inshore fishing fishing in shallow water, and who would enjoy a swimbait option designed for bottom contact that does not get hung up on structure as much as a traditional paddle tail with a jig, this is one of the more intriguing new soft baits I saw at ICAST.

Knox’s Verdict: 4.5/5

New Bait #3: Snag Proof Zoo Wag

Category: Freshwater Soft Lure

Some of the best ideas at ICAST weren’t entirely new, they were familiar ideas adapted to solve an old problem. That’s exactly what I thought when I saw the Snag Proof Zoo Wag.

Anyone who’s spent time bass fishing has probably heard of, or thrown, the legendary Arbogast Jitterbug. Its signature “plop-plop-plop” across the surface has been calling up bass for generations. The downside, of course, is that traditional treble-hooked topwaters and heavy Florida vegetation don’t always get along.
The Zoo Wag changes that. Instead of exposed trebles, the Zoo Wag is a hollow-body, weedless topwater built around the same concept of creating surface commotion while allowing anglers to throw it into places a Jitterbug simply couldn’t go. Lily pads, hydrilla, Kissimmee grass, reeds, and matted vegetation suddenly become fair game.

For Florida anglers, that’s a big deal. Our biggest bass often live in the nastiest cover on the lake. Traditional walking baits and buzzbaits excel in more open water, while frogs dominate heavy vegetation. The Zoo Wag seems to carve out an interesting middle ground by combining the surface disturbance of a classic Jitterbug with the snag-resistant design of a hollow-body frog.

I can picture throwing this across pad fields, along reed lines, over submerged hydrilla or topped out grass in shallow water when bass have moved up to feed before or after spawning. That unique wobbling action could be especially effective on warm summer mornings and evenings when bass are looking up.

Will it replace my favorite hollow-body frog? Probably not. Will it replace a traditional Jitterbug? Probably not, either. But I don’t think it’s trying to. Instead, it offers anglers another topwater presentation they simply haven’t had before; a weedless bait that produces a different sound and action than the countless frogs already on the market. That’s meaningful innovation because it expands our options instead of duplicating what’s already available.

The Zoo Wag was one of the more creative freshwater products I found at ICAST. It respects one of fishing’s most iconic topwater lures while updating it for the vegetation-choked lakes that define bass fishing in Florida. If it delivers that classic Jitterbug-style surface commotion without constantly hanging in the grass, I think it has the potential to become a favorite among Florida bass anglers.

Knox’s Verdict: 4.5/5

New Bait #4: MirrOlure C23MR High Pitch Dine

Category: Saltwater Hard Lure
If there was one bait at ICAST that immediately made me stop and pay attention, it was the new MirrOlure C23MR High Pitch Dine. Part of that is because I’m already a believer in the MirrOdine hard baits.
Over the years, the MirrOdine has earned a permanent place in my tackle box. I’ve relied on it for post-front seatrout, suspended redfish, and snook when a slow, subtle presentation is the difference between getting skunked and putting together a memorable day. Simply put, it catches fish. So when MirrOlure announced a new version with an updated sound, I wanted to know whether it was a genuine improvement or simply another variation on a proven lure.

The biggest difference is in the name: High Pitch Dine. MirrOlure redesigned the internal chamber to produce a higher-frequency rattle than the traditional MirrOdine. While that might sound like a small tweak, sound is one of the most overlooked variables in lure design. Fish don’t just see our lures; they hear and feel them through their lateral line.

In our inshore waters, that subtle change could be meaningful. There are just days when one sound profile simply gets more attention than another. Just as anglers change lure colors to match conditions, having another acoustic option gives us one more tool to experiment with when fish are being selective.

What I appreciate most is that MirrOlure didn’t try to reinvent one of the most successful inshore lures ever made. They refined it. Too often “innovation” in the fishing industry means making products bigger, flashier, or more complicated. The High Pitch Dine takes a different approach. It keeps the same suspending profile, same proven action, and same versatility that anglers already trust while offering another variable to help dial in the bite.

Will it outfish the original every day? Probably not. But there will almost certainly be days when fish show a preference for one sound over another, just as they do with color, size, or retrieve cadence. Having both versions in your tackle box gives anglers another opportunity to unlock a pattern instead of simply tying on the same lure every trip.

The High Pitch Dine isn’t a replacement for the classic MirrOdine, it’s a complement to it. For anglers who already appreciate what the MirrOdine does, this feels like a thoughtful evolution rather than a gimmick. That’s exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to find at ICAST.
Knox’s Verdict: 4.3/5

New Bait #5: Scum Frog Scum Runner

Category: Freshwater Soft Lure
If you’ve spent any time bass fishing Florida, you know that some of the best fish live in places designed to steal your lures. Hydrilla. Kissimmee grass. Pepper grass. Pads. Reeds. The list can go on and on!

That’s exactly where the Scum Frog Scum Runner caught my attention. At first glance, it looks like another bluegill swimbait, and admittedly, the market isn’t hurting for bluegill imitators. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized this bait is trying to solve a problem instead of simply looking pretty on a tackle shop peg.

The Scum Runner combines a lifelike baitfish profile with a soft, double-curly tail and a weedless design that allows anglers to fish it where bass live and ambush prey. Florida bass don’t spend much time in open water, they live in the thick stuff.

The Scum Runner is designed to go into those places without constantly hanging up, giving anglers the ability to present a topwater profile where big bass are looking to ambush prey in a vulnerable position.

I can picture this bait being fished over spawning beds in the spring, buzzing it over hydrilla, through eelgrass lanes, beside cattails, or pitching it into holes in lily pads. That twin-tail design creates a bubble trail and has an enticing noise when being buzzed across the water.

Another thing I appreciate is that this lure doesn’t rely on technology or gimmicks to sell itself. It simply recognizes a biological truth: big Florida bass eat bluegill and shad, a lot of them. Building a lure that can realistically imitate that forage while remaining weedless feels like a thoughtful approach to a very real challenge.

I can absolutely see it becoming a specialty topwater bait for targeting bigger bass in heavy vegetation, especially on lakes in the Kissimmee Chain, where fishing the cover is important. The Scum Runner doesn’t reinvent bass fishing, but it does address one of the biggest challenges Florida anglers face: presenting a topwater over heavy cover. That’s the kind of practical innovation I was hoping to see at ICAST.
Knox’s Verdict: 4.0/5

Conclusion

After two days of walking the floor at ICAST, one thing became clear to me. Innovation isn’t dead. It’s just not always where the biggest crowds are. The products that impressed me most weren’t necessarily the most expensive, the flashiest, or the ones with the largest booths. They were the ones that solved real problems. A biodegradable lure made in Florida. A swimbait that imitates an overlooked forage fish. A classic suspending bait refined with a new sound profile. A weedless buzzing bait for heavy cover. A topwater that reimagines one of fishing’s all-time classics.

None of these products promise to replace time on the water. None claim to make experience obsolete. And most importantly, none require you to finance your next fishing trip. Instead, they embrace what I believe fishing should always be about: understanding fish, matching the forage, reading the conditions, and choosing the right tool for the job.

That’s the kind of innovation I’ll continue looking for. Because at the end of the day, the best fishing product isn’t the one with the loudest marketing campaign or the highest price tag. It’s the one that earns a permanent place in your tackle box.