Jaidyn Taylor, 3, shoots an arrow with help from J.D. Casto of Almost Heaven Archery. Many children said they enjoyed shooting the bow at the West Virginia Hunting and Fishing Show at the Charleston Civic Center.
Isabella Grace may have attended the West Virginia Hunting and Fishing Show for the first time on Saturday, but hunting isn't anything new for the 8-year-old -- she bagged her first squirrel in September.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Isabella Grace may have attended the West Virginia Hunting and Fishing Show for the first time on Saturday, but hunting isn't anything new for the 8-year-old -- she bagged her first squirrel in September.
Grace, along with her parents and siblings, visited the 26th annual show at the Charleston Civic Center. The show opened at noon on Friday and lasts until 5 p.m. Sunday. The Williamson resident said she used a shotgun to kill her first squirrel while hunting with her father, something she enjoys.
After she walked around the Civic Center main floor that was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of attendees, Grace said she had a lot of fun during her first visit.
"I liked shooting the bow. It was cool. I also like all the camouflage," she said.
By the looks of it on Saturday, just about everyone at the show likes camouflage. One couldn't miss the shades of black and green everywhere -- on hats, shirts, shoes, knives, fishing poles, backpacks and even a baby's onesie.
"You can get camo anything you want, from lingerie to boots," said the show's treasurer, Mike Green.
The show averages more than 15,000 attendees each year, Green said. Last year, 16,093 people visited, he said. The show draws people from throughout the Kanawha Valley and much of southern West Virginia.
Green said visitors also travel from Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania to buy products from the many outfitters and more than 170 exhibitors. He said 80 percent of those with exhibits have been to the show before. Of the 241 booths available, only two were unoccupied, he said.
"Exhibitors like our people who come and they sell a lot of hunting and fishing [items]," Green said. "We had an outfitter [last year] from Alaska who sold more in three days than he'd sell in 11 days at the Harrisburg show. Everybody in the state hunts and/or fishes."
Mike Frederick, of Buckhannon, purchased a pair of sunglasses on Saturday that also records video. While he's hunting, Frederick said all he has to do is push a button on his glasses to record his hunt. Frederick and his wife, Crystal, have visited the show for the past 10 years to book hunting trips, he said, including one with Northern Outdoor Lodge in New Brunswick, Canada. Although Crystal doesn't hunt, she enjoys going with him for fun.
"She doesn't hunt but she's there when it comes out of the skillet," Frederick joked.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Isabella Grace may have attended the West Virginia Hunting and Fishing Show for the first time on Saturday, but hunting isn't anything new for the 8-year-old -- she bagged her first squirrel in September.
Grace, along with her parents and siblings, visited the 26th annual show at the Charleston Civic Center. The show opened at noon on Friday and lasts until 5 p.m. Sunday. The Williamson resident said she used a shotgun to kill her first squirrel while hunting with her father, something she enjoys.
After she walked around the Civic Center main floor that was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of attendees, Grace said she had a lot of fun during her first visit.
"I liked shooting the bow. It was cool. I also like all the camouflage," she said.
By the looks of it on Saturday, just about everyone at the show likes camouflage. One couldn't miss the shades of black and green everywhere -- on hats, shirts, shoes, knives, fishing poles, backpacks and even a baby's onesie.
"You can get camo anything you want, from lingerie to boots," said the show's treasurer, Mike Green.
The show averages more than 15,000 attendees each year, Green said. Last year, 16,093 people visited, he said. The show draws people from throughout the Kanawha Valley and much of southern West Virginia.
Green said visitors also travel from Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania to buy products from the many outfitters and more than 170 exhibitors. He said 80 percent of those with exhibits have been to the show before. Of the 241 booths available, only two were unoccupied, he said.
"Exhibitors like our people who come and they sell a lot of hunting and fishing [items]," Green said. "We had an outfitter [last year] from Alaska who sold more in three days than he'd sell in 11 days at the Harrisburg show. Everybody in the state hunts and/or fishes."
Mike Frederick, of Buckhannon, purchased a pair of sunglasses on Saturday that also records video. While he's hunting, Frederick said all he has to do is push a button on his glasses to record his hunt. Frederick and his wife, Crystal, have visited the show for the past 10 years to book hunting trips, he said, including one with Northern Outdoor Lodge in New Brunswick, Canada. Although Crystal doesn't hunt, she enjoys going with him for fun.
"She doesn't hunt but she's there when it comes out of the skillet," Frederick joked.
The hunting and fishing show also featured animal exhibits, seminars and auctions. For the fifth year, representatives of the West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center conducted a live Birds of Prey seminar from noon to 1 p.m.
The show featured six of the center's seven educational birds: A great horned owl, a barred owl, a screech owl, a red-tailed hawk, a broad-winged hawk and "Thunder," the center's resident bald eagle.
The turkey vulture didn't make an appearance because its cage couldn't fit in a car to travel to Charleston, said center director Michael Book.
Book entertained the crowd of about 40 as he told facts about the birds as they were perched on his arm. Thunder has a 7-foot wingspan, doesn't like people and of the 12 bald eagles that were illegally shot in West Virginia in 1992, she is the only one to survive, Book said.
"People don't understand that [birds] have personalities. One thing she doesn't like is people. She doesn't like me at all. She is in charge," said Book, who has been the eagle's sole handler for 19 years.
For Winfield resident Doug Chambers, the hunting and fishing show is a social gathering. An avid duck hunter, Chambers sees many of his friends, including men he served with in the National Guard. His wife, Janet, paints pictures of wildlife, which she sold at the show as an exhibitor last year.
"It's like a big family reunion for West Virginians," Green said.
As in the past, profits from the auction will be donated to wildlife and conservation organizations throughout the state. Past recipients include Archery in Schools, Hunters Helping the Hungry, Trout Unlimited, the National Wildlife Turkey Federation and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The show also donates some profit to the West Virginia Raptor Rehabilitation Center, Book said.
"They give [money] to organizations that do environmental education, which is a great thing because education is a solution to many problems," Book said.
The show also featured the West Virginia Whitetail Hall of Fame -- an exhibit of trophy bucks killed in the Mountain State this year and in past seasons. Other agencies and organizations -- including the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, Ducks Unlimited, the National Rifle Association and the Attorney General's Office -- were on hand to help visitors who had specific hunting and fishing questions.
Reach Megan Workman at megan.work...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.
