“There’s never an offseason for fishing, especially for the diehards.”
That helps sum up Larry “Redneck” Nibert’s lifelong love and accompanying vocation.
With the variety of guided fishing excursions offered by West Virginia Experience, the company Nibert founded in April 2003, he and a pool of about 12 knowledgeable guides impart advice to visitors and locals alike, whether they’re searching for that elusive prized fish on several different West Virginia rivers or simply want to embrace a relaxing day in the boat with family and friends.
The West Virginia Experience fleet consists of 11 boats, with the capacity to handle groups as large as 16. “I have done larger trips,” Nibert said in an interview earlier this year.
“I do trips on about six different rivers in West Virginia, and it’s my bread and butter,” said Nibert, who hails from Kincaid and currently resides in Fayetteville.
The rivers the company explores include the New, Gauley, Elk, Greenbrier, Cheat and Tygart.
Nibert estimates close to a dozen companies offer frequent fishing excursions on local rivers, including some of the whitewater rafting companies. His is a stand-alone business which focuses primarily on fishing.
Nibert says local fishing trip outfitters tend to help each other out as much as possible. “We’re kind of a family,” he said. “A competitive family, but a family.”
He says if another local company has a big day in front of it and he can help out, he’ll do it. And they’ll return the favor for him.
West Virginia Experience offers a variety of float trips, including full, 3/4- and 1/2-day trips, and “from time to time, we will take people on walk-and-wade fly-fishing trips.”
The company also offers overnight trips, which include two 8- to 10-hour days of fishing, refreshments and snacks, and meals prepared by the guide.
The company also occasionally offers such special activities as fly-fishing clinics.
Nibert says different rivers offer different success, depending on which fish is the goal of a particular party.
Small-mouth bass is the most popular among clients, with the New River being among the popular destinations.
Among the other requested species are musky, walleye and trout. “It’s hard to beat the Gauley and extreme upper New” for musky, Nibert said. For walleye, the “New River is getting better and better, but the Gauley, in my humble opinion, is more consistent.” Good haunts for trout include the headwaters of the Elk and the extreme headwaters of the Gauley.
As with many other businesses, guided fishing companies get both local and out-of-state traffic looking for a good day on the river.
In April to June and September to November of each year, he estimates that 80 percent or more of his business traffic comes from locals. In July and August, the 80 percent flips over to visitors from beyond the borders creating a lot of walk-in traffic. He’s also got at least two guides who work for him who do a good bit of fishing in the winter. And they always have some “hard-corps anglers” available who like to get out and try their luck.
This year’s trips obviously have to be undertaken under established health and safety guidelines due to the Covid-19 crisis, Nibert said. After emerging from the early portion of the Covid-19 lockdown, people were “wanting to get out.”
He didn’t anticipate the business volume the company experienced earlier this year. “I never expected to do 130 or 140 (boats) because of all that is going on,” he said during the earlier interview. At that time, West Virginia Experience had staged almost 200 trips, compared to about 120 at the same time in 2019. On one particular day, he said he farmed out seven trips his company couldn’t handle because of volume to other companies. “Pass it forward,” Nibert said, because “somebody did that for me.”
In a brief follow-up call on Sept. 21, Nibert said business is still going well. “We’re running hard,” he said. “We’re keeping a close eye on whatever (guidelines) the health department (issues).”
Nibert said he grew up learning a great deal about fishing and the outdoors from his father and uncle. “I’ve always been a fisherman,” he said. “I still enjoy fishing,” but the long hours required to oversee the business leave him much less time for personal outings.
Prior to launching West Virginia Experience, he worked as a rafting guide for Rivers for 13 years.
“At the time, I was one of the most requested guides of the company,” Nibert said. Sparked by conversation with Rivers’ Eddie Lilly, though, Nibert eventually decided to branch out and start his fishing business. “The very next year I went out and got my outfitter’s license.”
Overall, guided fishing trips “have gotten a heck of a lot more popular” in recent years, he said. He has had to force himself to “put a few days in my schedule when I promise not to do anything” in order to get some rest.
As 2020 wore on and businesses continued to adapt to Covid-19, Nibert took a minute to reflect on his career so far. “I’m so blessed and thankful doing what I do,” he said. “The stars have just aligned.”
For more on Nibert’s company, visit www.wvexperience.com.
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Although Labor Day weekend is considered the unofficial end of summer, numerous opportunities exist in the coming months for fishing adventures in the Mountain State, according to fish management officials for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.
“Summer might be winding down, but it’s a great time to take a trip, enjoy our natural resources and maybe see what’s a half hour or an hour away,” Mark Scott, assistant chief of fish management for the WVDNR, said in a press release. “A lot of folks travel to the beach for vacation so they can get away, but you’d be surprised by what you can find close to home.”
With thousands of miles of streams trickling through the mountains and hundreds of lakes dotting the landscape, there’s no shortage of quiet and scenic places to cast a line in West Virginia.
“We have an online mapping tool that shows all the different facilities the DNR operates and it’s an excellent tool if you’re a beginner or if you’ve been fishing for years but want to try a float trip on a certain river,” Scott said.
The online map, available at mapwv.gov/huntfish, features a searchable database of West Virginia’s public lakes, streams, rivers and other fishable waters and includes information about accessibility and amenities.
Anglers who have questions about stream gauge levels and fishing conditions in a specific location should contact the WVDNR office in that area. All anglers 15-and-older are required to have a fishing license and valid form of identification while fishing.
To learn more about West Virginia’s fishing regulations, visit wvdnr.gov. To purchase a fishing license, visit wvfish.com.
Related social media hashtags are #wvdnr and #wvfish.
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