MONONGALIA COUNTY, W. Va. – The West Virginia Fishing, Hunting, and Outdoors Show comes to the JW Ruby Community Center at Mylan Park on March 2 and 3. The largest sports show in the region features 200 vendors in 100,000 square feet of everything outdoors.
NASCAR driver, disabled Marine Corps veteran, and host of Josh White’s Outdoor Adventures show currently on Waypoint TV will be on hand with give-aways and autographs.
“I’m just there to have a fun time, meet some new people, make some new fans, and I’ll be there signing autographs as well,” White said. “You can come get a free autograph and get your picture taken with me; it’s going to be a fun time.”
White is a West Virginia native and said the show is a real family account of actual hunting adventures. White, his daughter, and their family share their hunting experiences in the West Virginia countryside, not from a plantation or organized hunting area.
“It’s real hunting; nothing is scripted,” White said. “Sometimes we get something, and sometimes we don’t.”
For season 2, the show will begin to branch out to other areas of the country and move to cable TV. Beginning this month, season 2 can be seen on Waypoint TV and the Hunt Channel.
“We’re going to be upgrading; it’s going to be an awesome ride—it’s going to be even better next year,” White said. “I learned a lot this year, but next year we’re going to be on cable TV, so next year is going to be a big year for us.”
There will also be several chances to win, including a weekend for two at Dream Mountain Ranch valued at $10,000, a youth dirt bike, a Red Bonafide SS127 kayak, and a Northern Maine Bear Bait Hunt valued at $4,600.
Erik Geroski, a West Virginia native, and the Backbone Mountain Guide Service team are providing the Maine bear hunting adventure. Geroski said 15 years ago, he started coming to Maine to hunt and developed a relationship with the guide service. Geroski and his partner bought the guide service about five years ago and have been operating it since.
“We’re primarily hound hunters providing hounded bear adventures, but we also offer guided bait hunts,” Geroski said.
Geroski said there are more and larger bears in Maine, and the biggest difference Mountain State hunters will notice is that baiting is legal. He said they operate about 75 bait sites on 40,000 acres with a variety of tree stands or ground blinds, and hunters can use a gun or bow.
“You stand a better chance of harvesting a bigger bear in Maine,” Geroski said. “Just because there’s more bear up there, you’d have a better chance of harvesting a trophy bear.”