Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

Join us as we journey the Commonwealth in search of outdoor adventure.

This week we're going to jump in a kayak and explore one of the many beautiful blue water trails.

Then we're going to grab a lantern and a fish gig and try something new.

But first, we're headed to beautiful Dale Hollow Lake.

Home of the world record smallmouth bass, but we're looking for crappie.

This March cold morning.

I'm out here with Preston Cleary.

With Cleary█s Kentucky Fishing.

We're on Dale Hollow Lake and, you know, typically we come to Dale hollow.

People know this lake for smallmouth fishing and bass fishing, but we're doing something different today aren█t we?

Yeah we█re gonna go catching some big crappie on Dale Hollow.

Crappie fishing on Dale hollow?

I've seen a bunch of big crappie.

I've actually caught some big crappie.

But what people don't realize is this is one of the Premier Leagues to go catch a big limit of crappie, isn't it?

Yes.

We've got some very big crappie here.

Sometimes they can be a little bit difficult because that's what Dale Hollow█s famous for.

If you know where to look, you can catch them.

This lake is, really clear.

If you█ve ever been to Dale Hollow Lake, it's notoriously clear water.

So we've had a lot of rain the last month or so.

The water is stained up, but on the other end of the lake, it's crystal clear again.

So we may fish a little clear water and some stained water today.

Yeah, we're going to be fishing Some muddy water and we're gonna be fishing some clear water.

I'm interested to talk to you today and find out how your technique changes depending on water quality.

Well it changes day to day.

In mud the fish tend to be a little bit more aggressive, but it's harder to get that bait on them and present it to them.

Clearer water They'll run farther, but they're smarter.

Okay.

They're a little bit, less out the bite.

You were telling me.

And we'll talk about this a little bit later on.

You're telling me sometimes you use as little as 2 pound test line?

Yeah, we're going to be using some 2 pound today.

And, the highest I go out here right now is 4 for casting.

And then I'll use for a long rod.

I'll use, ten.

Okay.

But I use all fluorocarbon.

Black, white crappie mixture?

Both?

We're going to be catching a mixture later in the day.

But first we're going to stop in a place we're going to get some blacks and black nose.

Okay.

All right.

Hey black nose crappie.

That's not something you see everywhere.

We've got some big ones here.

All right, well, let's get after it.

I'm ready to go.

All right.

So I'm just going to ease up through here.

And we're looking for a fish just gliding across the top of the water, and I'm going to figure out how to attack it.

And you're saying we're talking like shallow two, two and three feet, Yeah.

I'm looking for a fish that's going to.

He's going to fill up half the grid square.

So there's two feet.

So half half there.

You're looking at a 12 inch fish or close to it.

Yeah.

I use, some ten foot rods because they're very forgiving when you set the hook.

Yeah.

And this color mud we can use about any color.

They're pretty aggressive.

White chartreuse is a really good color for the mud.

Because what what color are fish in the mud?

They're usually white.

White?

Yeah.

So bait fish are going to be white.

Little slip-float.

this float here, I'll carry a 1/16 and I've got a 1/16.

Jig on here.

I'm looking.

So what I'm looking for on here is I'm looking for a fish just running horizontal and, not moving much.

It's just running off to the right there.

I just missed him.

I█d go ahead and repitch it chad.

We█re going to throw your arm off today.

Hey, I'm good with that.

This is how you catch them in the mud.

Just give me a second.

I'm gonna grab a different rod.

I'm gonna grab that long rod.

Yeah, I got to see this.

I don't know if I've ever seen a, a 20ft rod before.

This is fun to catch them like this.

And you don't have to go all the way out to 20ft with this rod.

This is a Mississippi way of catching them.

See him get hot?

Yep.

He█s about to get it.

Here we go.

Giant, giant, giant.

Oh, my gosh, look at that crappie.

Oh my Gosh.

Oh, I mean, is that pretty common?

This is a giant.

Yeah.

We got a lot of them like that but this is this is huge.

That is a giant.

And I caught it on a 20ft rod.

Oh my gosh, what a beautiful fish You know the one you lost earlier wasn█t quite that big.

No, he wasn't quite that.

It was a really good fish.

How deep was it, Chad?

Less than two feet.

Yeah, less than two foot deep.

And this is what people come in the hollow to catch too.

This is a giant.. You don't get them like that every day, But caught him right on the surface of the water just so I know.

And the.

You told me that we were going to be fishing open water two feet deep near no cover.

I was like, this doesn't sound like crappie fishing but I'm a believer.

Yeah, that's just a massive, massive fish.

What a nice fish.

Let's go get us another one.

Just right there, Chad.

That's it.

There you go.

You're right on him.

You are right on him.

He█s about to get it, Chad.

He█s about to get, he█s nosed up.

you got it.

Oh, that's a good crappie.

Let me get out of the way.

Let me get that net.

Did you feel him hit?

No.

I watched the bobber bounce.

Oh, did you?

Another good crappie.

That's another two isn█t it?

Yes.

He is.

Wow.

Oh my gosh.

So you don't even need a, measuring board here at this point it's a keeper.

You're either in or you're out.

Oh, my gosh, that thing feels like I'm holding a cast iron skillet.

Look at that.

You know, for years, 25 years, I've been coming to dale hollow crappie- Excuse me, smallmouth fishing.

And I had no clue that that type of a meal was sitting down there.

And I have avoided them for 25 years.

That's a plateful, isn't it?

That is.

Look at that fish.

What a beautiful crappie.

It's another two pounder.

Nice job man.

We got more to catch.

Right there, Chad.

That's got it.

Yeah, yeah, come on back just a touch right there.

He didn't see it.

Didn█t see it did he?

Oh, so we're gonna get back on him.

Go down just a touch.

Just like an inch or two or about 2 in 2 or three inches.

It makes a difference.

Oh, I bet.

This fish will hammer it whenever he sees it.

He's right there, Chad.

Yeah.

25.

That's got it.

Yep.

Got a good one.

On your side.

Oh that's a good that's a good fish.

Wow.

There we go.

How deep was he?

As deep as that fish was 18in or something.

Yeah, yeah.

Look at there, man.

No throwbacks.

But you are actually measuring those fish on the screen.

I█m measuring them.

You kind of know we‘re throwin█ at the fish and most likely it's going to be a keeper.

Yeah.

Measuring them.

I'm picking up a pattern and I'm measuring those fish before we throw on them.

But man, the bait has to be right on them.

You've got to touch his nose.

You got to literally put it on their face.

And look, I just barely skin hooked that fish.

I just about missed him.

Dale hollow crappie.

I've seen people catch them.

I've known they've been down there for a long time, but I just didn't know the quality.

That's the smallest one we got of the day.

Yeah.

That's a that's a really nice fish.

Yeah.

That's that's a lot of other places█ big fish.

These are not schooling.

These are singles.

Single fish.

single fish.

In 35ft of water set in 18in deep.

Oh, oh , oh, I didn't see that one hit.

Oh, let me get on this side.

My bad.

It's another two isn█t it?

Yeah, that's a good one.

I did not see that one bite.

I guess you felt him, huh?

Yeah.

He goes bang!

Man, I tell you what, that fish took a minute out in it.

Yeah, it took a minute.

You got to really hold it on him.

You keep the bait on them long enough they will eat it, won't they?

Yeah.

The quality of the fish, it's worth it, you know.

It's worth it.

Just spending a little bit of time, you know, 4 or 5, six minutes.

Go to the next fish and if they'll, if they want it, they will ultimately take it.

Now these are giants that we█re catching.

Oh yeah.

These are just beautiful beautiful crappie.

Huge fish.

Well, Preston, Dale Hollow is not really known for crappie.

And you just showed me today that big quality crappie are here in big numbers.

Yeah.

We've got, we've got some two pounders a day.

We got a 2.10, 2 pound, ten ounce fish right here.

Giants.

And, we've got some giant crappie here and, we've had a good time today.

I mean, we've had we've had a blast.

And, you know, it might not be the first place you think of, but maybe it should be if you want to come catch big quality crappie, Dale Hollow should be on your list to come give it a try.

Tell you one thing.

You got all the table fare you could want for a couple people today, don't you?

Yeah.

If you're an angler and you'd like to explore some new fishing locations, I recommend you getting a kayak and checking out the blue water trails.

I'm standing here on a creek bank in central Kentucky with a gentleman who is the author of all of the Blue Water Trails articles that are super popular in Kentucky Afield magazine.

Lee, how are you doing?

I'm doing fantastic.

So if you're not in the office, this is where you can be found.

This is where I usually am, yes.

Being on a bank or fishing in the stream from a kayak is kind of like your specialty.

I love it.

Yeah, that's my passion.

And it's gotten more and more and more popular over the last 15, 20 years to the point that you guys have decided to put together a series entitled Blue Water Trails.

Tell me a little bit about what Blue Water Trails is all about.

Well believe it or not we started these in 2010.

Can you believe that?

We've been doing them almost 14 years now.

What we try to do is we want to take the pressure off, Chad.

You know how it is when you're trying to find a place to go.

We want people to be able to look at the articles, study the maps, and know that where you're at is okay.

It's public, I ground-proof everything, I float them.

It's been researched.

We want a stress free experience for people to come out and enjoy a day.

Floating a stream is about a good a day as you can find.

So this blue water trails kind of gives people certain sections with a public put in and a public take out place and gives them an idea of what to expect.

When you go kayak fishing, you kind of need to have a basic idea of how are you going to catch fish, What fish species can be fished for, and how you're going to navigate your put in/take out.

That's perfectly condensed into an article in the blue water trails.

So what stream are we on today?

We're on Russell Creek.

Here, we're barely into Adair County and we're going to float into Green County.

We█re at an old community called Mill Town.

This is now mainly forgotten, but this was a very vibrant place back in the day.

So this float is actually a little longer.

Some of your floats, a lot of them, you focus on two to three miles.

This one█s seven.

Yes.

What are some things that a person needs to consider before going out and experiencing one of your blue water trails?

Well, read the article, of course, and look at the map.

And most of the ones that that I do don't involve any heavy rapids, but a couple of them do.

So make sure that your ability matches up with the water you plan to float.

I'll tell you what I know this is a long float.

We probably need to get rolling.

I have never been on Russell Creek.

I know this thing█s full of smallmouth.

I know it's got a lot of rock bass and other species, too.

And I've heard it's absolutely beautifully scenic.

Well, let's get you loaded.

Get you in the water.

Let's go catch them.

All right, brother.

Oh, what do we got here?

Something little.

Hey, fish is a fish.

Small mouth, though.

It█s a smallmouth.

I tell you what.

He knocked a loop in that line, I was reeling it pretty fast, and it just.

Bam!

Knocked a big old loop in there.

I've been fooled.

Big one sometimes barely hit, little ones: freight train.

I tell you what, just a beautiful, beautiful stream smallmouth bass.

Probably about seven inches long.

Here we go.

Oh, better fish.

Better fish.

I don't know how much better, but definitely better.

All right.

He's.

He's not that much bigger, but, you know, for a stream fish, it's a pretty good fish.

You know, this is probably, you know, 11 inch fish.

Pretty solid.

Looks like it's been eating well.

Pretty nice little fish right there.

You know, you come out here on light tackle or even a fly rod and catch fish this size.

It█s fun.

Doesn█t get any better.

Fish on.

I didn't realize you had a fish on the end.

This little dude took off on me.

Very nice.

I don't think he's going to break the Olympic record, but I█ll take him.

You know, after all these years, I've caught a million but I still love it.

Here we go.

Good one?

No, just a good little, little fighting small mouth.

Just a beautiful little fish.

That's a nice one.

Healthy.

It's amazing how a fish that size can fight like that.

I know.

Tell you what, you get out and you catch stream small mouth, and you get hooked pretty fast.

I know it.

Then if you get lucky enough, catch like a 16 incher and you think you've hooked into Moby Dick.

You know Lee, you and I have stream fished quite a few times on a bunch of different bodies of water.

But I will tell you this.

When it comes to stream fishing, anything that was designed and made to catch a crappie is usually a pretty good lure.

Will catch a stream smallmouth.

It█ll catch a stream small mouth.

If you're fishing and you got white bass, it█ll catch them.

It█ll also fish, you know you'll catch the largemouth bass.

Think about crappie sized minnow imitating lures and you're probably going to catch a fish.

No doubt.

I mean, the little crappy slider.

Yeah.

Oh, the Charlie Brewer slider grub.

I've got more white bass and stream smallmouth on that bait.

All right.

What do you got there?

Mr. Small Mouth.

There you go.

He's been eating well.

He's been at a Golden Corral buffet.

Oh, there you go.

I'll take that.

There you go.

That's a nice looking little smallie there.

No doubt.

What did he hit?

The little yammy fish that's called natural baitfish is the color.

That's a nice fish, Lee.

Good job, buddy.

All right.

Here we go.

Oh.

Oh, Smaller one.

That's just amazing at how hard they fight like that.

Every time you catch one this size, when you first hook them you think, Oh it's a good fish.

This is a two or three pounder.

And then you get it in and you're like, oh, nine inches.

They█re still so fun.

Oh, look at this.

What a nice looking smallmouth bass.

All right!

Thick.

Look at that.

What a nice looking fish.

Strong.

I'll tell you what.

It's a beauty.

That is a quality.

Russell Creek, Small mouth.

Heck yeah, that's a nice one.

That one there probably, what do you think?

14 inches?

Yeah, 13, 14 for sure.

Yeah.

And it's nice and fat.

Obviously has good forage base in here, that's for sure.

Strong.

That is a nice one.

Well I tell you what, Lee.

I absolutely love floating these streams and exploring them with you and doing some fishing.

It█s a lot of fun.

Oh, it is a ball.

It's a ball.

We haven█t slayed them, but we haven't had a bad day either.

We've caught quite a few fish.

And I'll tell you what, this seven and a half miles is not a beginner float.

It's a long float.

Yeah, it is.

So it's a time, if you're going to try to get it done in anything less than 8 hours, you're going to do a lot of paddling with no fishing.

Yes.

So we've done a lot of that.

But it's been a great time.

And this is a beautiful, beautiful float.

Yeah, it is.

I tell you what, if anybody wants to find out more about this particular stream or any of the other streams that you've covered in blue water trails, how do they go about doing it?

Go to the website, go to the top right, type in the search bar, “blue water trails,” and it'll bring up the blue water trails page and the Russell Creek is coming out in this issue of the magazine and it'll be on the website soon.

It's been a lot of fun.

I love your passion for small fishing.

I love your passion for just exploring in a kayak and canoe and history and it all comes together and floats just like this.

There are many legal ways to take a rough fish.

But none are more up close and personal than a lantern and a fish gig.

We're here in Madison County today, and I'm here with fish biologist Scott Barrett.

Scott, you've been telling me about an old tradition that old timers used to do a lot.

And I know you to as a kid as well, and that is gigging for fish.

Yeah, you know, a lot of people gig for frogs, right?

But gigging for fish is a little is a little different.

It's at night.

So we're going to be wearing waders, are going to be out in the stream.

We're going to have lights out, maybe some lanterns and a fish gig, which is a little different than a frog gig.

Tell me what a fish gig is.

What makes a good one?

You know, you think of a frog just like a like a beefier frog gig.

You want something that's a that's a little more robust.

I have a couple that were hammy down.

One of mine was my grandpa's things.

80 years old, and I still use it today.

And that you want something robust.

You hear a lot of rocks and unlike frogs.

You know, you're kind of poking them in a mud bank.

These guys are in a rock bottom stream, and you're having to put quite a bit of force.

I brought a lantern and a flashlight.

I don't know what's going to work best.

You tell me what I need.

We get down there and that's all we'll use.

Well, let's go.

Let's do it.

Let's go.

You know, I've always been all those people that don't like to get into cold water real slow.

I like to just go all out on this.

Definitely.

It's definitely cool.

I'm glad we decided to our waders.

Here's one.

Got em█.

A gar.

Yeah I think you got him.

There you go.

Kind of hold him up like gravity help you out and there you go.

So this is a long nosed gar right here, right?

Yep.

We're after a rough fish trying to can some fish.

Yeah.

Have you ever came one of these?

I've not canned one.

But it may be a good candidate to try.

Are you willing to give it a try?

Absolutely.

Well, if that's the case, I'll put it on the string and we'll see what we got.

Absolutely.

Here's you a gar Chad.

See him turning toward you.

Coming right at you.

Here, You hold this lantern, you got here.

Yeah.

You got him.

Well, good eye Scott.

Because I didn't need to see that.

Well, looks like we're going to be having gar croquettes.

That's.

That's what it's looking like.

That's what a lot of these fish that we were kind of looking at, hoping to see the real sweet or milder tasting fish.

They're up here to spawn.

Yeah.

And even though it's cold out in the water, which is pretty cold, the water has already been warm enough.

They've kind of moved up.

So we're just catching the last couple lingering fish.

So hopefully we hit a pocket and see some more.

Otherwise, we're going to have to make do with the gar tonight.

That's what it's looking like.

Yeah.

Got him.

There we go.

Well, we'll have a mess before you know it.

A mess of something.

Now he's got a mino in his mouth.

Yep.

Got him.

He's now got a gig in him too.

Well, shad.

He had a Shad in his mouth.

boy, they're all about the same size ain█t they?

Watch yourself Chad, this hole is filled with them.

there might be one.

Just swim right up to you.

Oh, there we go.

Gar hole.

I won't be long.

We brought him to the Gar hole.

There's one right there.

Got one here.

One right in front of you.

Yeah, two of them, miss coming back at you.

See him right here.

There you go.

Yeah, Kind of in one.

Right here, right now.

Oh, You got that one.

We got him.

Here we go.

Got it.

Here comes another one.

Now.

You got him good.

Yes, you did.

Heard that crunch.

It█s unreal how hard they are boney They are.

We have found the honey hole for the gar.

If we can just find some suckers or some catfish like this.

boy, we'd be on to something.

Well, you guys want to go up and about a hundred yards, maybe go back and see if We can't pick those up.

We can do that.

We got to go back that way anyway, so.

All right.

Now let's check in and see who else has been out having fun in this week's ones that didn't get away.

Ten year old William Massey got out and braved the wet youth weekend and took his first turkey in Pendleton County.

Nice job.

Four year old Barron Boyd got out and did a little bass fishing in Knott County and caught this nice largemouth bass.

Congratulations.

I love this picture of Ivy Carter with her first two fish from 2025.

She went and dug worms from her yard and hit the licking River.

Nine year old Lilly Latham got her first turkey this year in Hardin County.

Nice job.

The opening weekend to Kentucky spring Turkey season started out with a bang with beautiful weather and tons of opportunity.

But if you didn't get your bird, don't worry.

The season runs through May the 4th.

And remember, hunting and fishing on private property is a privilege.

Always ask permission and thank the landowner.

Until next week, I'm your host, Chad Miles, and I hope to see you in the woods or on the water.