He wants to know how the quail and grouse populations are looking for this year?

Cody That's right up your alley.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a great question and a really timely question.

This week on Kentucky Afield, we went live on social media to answer all of your fall hunting questions, and we're bringing you those answers right now.

It's all next on Kentucky Afield.

Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad.

Miles.

Thank you for tuning in tonight for our annual fall hunting question and answer show.

Joining me tonight to answer all our questions, I have Dr. John Haast, who is the big game program coordinator.

How are you doing?

Doing good.

Answering all of our small game questions.

We have another familiar face here, Cody Rhoden.

Thanks, Chad.

I really appreciate doing this.

I look forward to it every year.

Thank you for coming in.

We have Officer Paul.

Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrell.

I'm sorry, Sorrell.

And you're a fifth, fifth District Conservation officer.

And this is your first time doing the live show.

So thank you for coming out.

Thanks for having me.

All right.

Well, today we've got a lot of questions that are already coming in.

This show is all about all the hunting opportunities we have here in the fall, which includes a lot.

It's a lot of our small game seasons.

It's a lot of our bear, deer, elk hunting.

Some of it some of the hunting is already taking place.

Archery season has been going on for a while now.

Some of our small game opportunities are already present and now, Crossbow seasons is open, right?

So if you're a hunter and you love to be in the woods here in Kentucky, we've been blessed with some good weather this week.

It's a good time to be hitting in the woods isn█t it?

It is.

Yeah.

Well, let's go ahead and start getting to some of our questions here.

It looks like we've already got questions that are come through.

Right off the bat we've got a question it█s a deer question about CWD, so this would be you.

So Gary Jones says he lives and hunts and the five county CWD Zone, we█ll have you tell us a little bit about that in a second, but what are the statistics for this area and where can he find that information?

Yeah, absolutely.

So thanks to our hunters that have been great down there, we've sampled upwards of 7000 deer specifically in that CWD zone the last two years.

We've had zero come back positiv and we're going to continue that coming into this season and especially him being a hunter down there.

He knows we've kind of reeled things in a little bit each year and it'll be even less this year.

So that mandatory check will just be the first three days of gun season.

Okay.

So that's the 11th through the 13th.

A lot of the check stations are in the same place, but be sure to check online.

We moved a couple of them around, but the but the old standbys are still in the same place.

And then for county specific information, our CWD page on FW.KY.GOV It'll have all five of those counties broken down by number of samples and obviously there'll be zero positives there.

But you can see how many we've sampled by county.

Any time you start dealing with collecting data for, for wildlife, there's a hassle to collect that data and there's time, effort and energy from biologists and hunters to get that data.

But it's really, really important.

And you're going to have both sides say, Oh, you know, you're putting too much time, effort, energy and causing too much hassle for the hunters.

There's go to the other side is going to say, why not sample every single one of them?

Right.

Right.

But going to a three day is a really good kind of balance there because you're going to get a lot of samples.

What percentage of the deer are going to be harvested in the first three days of the season?

It's a good number.

And then statistically, it's the number we need to be very comfortable with what's happening in those five counties.

We can get that.

I mean, opening day by far is the, you know, the biggest harvest in that area.

And even if the weather's bad, it's the next day or the very first good day.

Exactly.

So you'll be there'll be a lot of deer taken in that first 3 days.

There will be.

Yeah.

All right.

Next question.

This is looks like quail and grouse question from DJ Mann.

He wants to know how the quail and grouse populations are looking for this year.

Cody That's right up your alley.

Yeah.

Chad That's a great question and a really timely question.

So for Quail specifically, we just finished up our rural mail carrier survey.

So with that survey we ask almost 600 rural mail carriers in the state of Kentucky when they're driving around in their routes the last full week of July, if they could just write down how many quail and rabbits they see while they're driving around delivering mail in the rural parts of the state.

And so we were just mentioning, you know, we get all this, we asked for all these data and we get all these data back and take some time to process.

So we're just now processing those data.

It looks like the quail season this year is going to be as good or a little bit better maybe even than last year.

And so as we know, the quail population has been precipitously declining in the last four decades or so.

Right.

And so but right now, you know, we're we're kind of leveling off.

So essentially, we're we're in a we're in a zone where we're experiencing similar numbers, relatively similar as the last couple of years, In the grouse population is a little bit bleaker of a picture.

So they're pretty much isolated to far eastern Kentucky, where there's still decent habitat for them.

And so a lot of that decent habitat is like really early secessional forests and things that we used to have from mining operations and things like that.

Essentially, where we're seeing a lot of grouse these days.

This is from more recent storm damage.

So things like tornadoes that happened five or so years ago and things along those lines.

There's still grouse in our woods, but grouse hunters are going to have to they know they'll have to put a little bit more boot rubber down to find those.

And we're actually talking earlier before the show about Quail and East Kentucky.

So a lot of these hunter access areas, the open lands from the mining operations in East Kentucky, are holding a lot of birds.

And it might be something that our sports people may be overlooking.

And I even I have been overlooking it the last few years generally go to West Kentucky to to hunt birds.

And it's there's good numbers out there in east Kentucky.

You know, every year on our elk hunts, we go to eastern Kentucky, we see quite a few coveys of Quail and we went and did a couple of rabbit hunts down there.

And we've we've flushed more coveys of Quail in eastern Kentucky on coal mines than I do normally when I go to western Kentucky.

So they're definitely, definitely there.

There's no question.

Awesome.

Yeah.

So your mail carrier survey, what is a they didn't ask whether I'm a hounds but I love those rabbit dogs.

Yeah, how does that look?

Yeah so again pretty much on par.

So if you remember back to small game generally in the state of Kentucky kind of oscillate or cycle in these big seven year cycles, it probably has something to do with weather.

Most small game species cycling does, especially in our far northern states.

If there's a bad winter or something like that.

You know, we've been pretty lucky in Kentucky as far as not having the type of weather that would suppress the animals that are left on the landscape in the wintertime.

And then we've had some bad weather, some floods and some tornadoes for the wildlife, though luckily that's not as bad as, say, three feet of snow on the ground for many weeks in a row.

Right.

And so we haven't had that in the last few winters in Kentucky.

So that allows more animals to get to the spring, to make more young rabbits and more young quail.

And then again, that means more animals in the fall.

So we have pretty mild winters which have led to good reproduction.

And on the quail side and on the rabbit side is, as you well know as a houndsman, the springs have been relatively dry at the right periods of time.

Right.

So we haven't had well, this year it was so dry that, you know, a lot of the hay cutting in the state was kind of delayed due to that dryness.

And that wasn't great for our producers out there, but it was good for the animal species that that use that stuff for nesting.

And also they're just not integrated with all that rain coming down at one point in time.

So as far as quail, you think will be a little better or equal to last year.

And rabbits is about the same.

About the same, Yeah.

Yeah.

So I think we're kind of you know, we're kind of holding steady right now and that's that has a lot to do with the winter weather and also the spring weather.

And that's been pretty pretty consistently good.

All right, good, good news.

Next question is from Ryan, he wants to know what changes have been made to fall turkey hunting this year?

Now, fall turkey hunting is something that people don't participate in at the level that they do in spring turkey hunting.

Right.

But fall turkey season can be a lot of fun.

It can be.

Tell me a little bit about any changes.

First off, were there changes made?

There was changes to the fall turkey regs, the biggest being that there's hunters only allowed to harvest 2 legal birds in the fall now.

One bird with a visible beard longer than three inches and one bird with no beard or shorter than three inches.

Okay, so essentially one bearded, one beardless bird.

So last year that was like 4 birds.

4 birds.

Only so many could be taken with the shotgun.

I forget exactly the rules, but this year, essentially half of the harvest legally is what you're going to be allowed to do, right?

Correct.

Yes.

Okay.

And does does it matter as far as how you take them, what type of firearm versus archery versus.

Nope.

Doesn't matter.

Okay.

So two two birds, one of which can be beard longer than three inches, one of which is a shorter than three inches or non-visible.

Or a hen, right?

Correct.

And that's a big difference between the spring and the fall turkey season.

Is that in the fall season only beard or spring season, it's only bearded birds.

Only bearded birds.

Now you've got you can you can you can take a beardless or a hen?

Correct.

All right.

Next question is from It looks like we've got Cherokee Gibson.

What's the process for changing zones for deer?

Apparently they want to they're talking about zone four.

If they wanted to change the limit of deer taken in zone four, I'm guessing they probably wants the number of animals reduced.

Yeah, potentially.

Maybe raised.

I don't know.

But.

Well, if someone says, well, I just don't think that the zone I'm hunting, that my zone correlates with what I'm seeing in the field.

How do you go about getting that adjusted.

Yeah.

Really two ways to do it.

So number one, give us a call, call our 800 number up here, ask for one of the deer biologists and and we'll just have a discussion and see where you're at and see if we can either explain some things or, you know, we're looking for that input from the field.

You know, if we need to change something in the future.

And this second would be working through your district commissioner.

So you can go on our website, you'll get a list of your of your commissioners and, you know, express what you're seeing in the field to them.

And then they might bring it through.

And, you know, that's essentially how a reg gets changed.

You know, this is kind of the same rule or the same way that if someone called me and said, hey, I want the limit to be ten inches on Taylorsville Lake for crappie, find out who you commission member is and you're in your in your district.

There's maps on the website.

More info, I think is how you get to it.

And it shows a map and based on what county you live in, you have a person that's essentially that's your representative.

Yeah.

You reach out to that individual and you tell them what what you'd like to see done and start there.

If that person if that person decides to get the other commissioners involved, that's how rules and regulations are made and changed or adjusted.

So that's kind of the process or whatever you want to see done in the state of Kentucky, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

And we're very much so.

We're on the science end, but we're also always looking at the sportsmen that are out there in the field and trying to match those two up where where everybody's happy.

We were talking about data and we, earlier we talk about all the ways that we get data.

And we've talked about the surveillance zone.

We've got a lot of data for these counties based on harvest numbers and trends.

And, you know, so you've got some data you want to look at, but that may not tell the whole story sometimes, right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So if you have if you have some input, we'd love to hear from you.

Yeah.

All right.

Great point.

We also have I'll just plug this for the cook.

We have a commission meeting coming up this Friday in which those those individuals sit down for a whole day and it's open to the public so you can watch it on our YouTube page is links on our website to find those things and kind of see how the sausage is made.

Right.

And as you were mentioning, you know, these people are the conduit from the sports people to the science to the agency for all these regions in the state.

And so if anyone's interested, like I said, we'll have a commission meeting this Friday and they happen quarterly.

And and so, yeah, log on and check one out.

All those agendas and everything is up there and you want to try to get on one of those agendas maybe that you talk to the commission member and they like to hear what you have to say.

They may you may end up on the agenda to come speak to other sportsmen and women and other commission members.

So if you're interested in something and you're pretty passionate about it, the way you get it done is through your commission member and then come to a committee committee meeting that gets forward on it goes to a commission meeting, and that's where all of our rules and regulations are set in law, right?

So that's the way to go about it.

Next question is from Carly Smith.

Like to reach I'd like to search the timber and flush woodcock with my bird dog this fall.

Are any areas of the state better than areas for Woodcock?

There you go.

That's a great question.

And so generally so Woodcock are a migratory bird in the state of Kentucky.

Essentially they're moving from north to south and that's where we set our hunting season to try to catch that migratory pathway.

And there's good the best time to hunt Woodcock in the state of Kentucky is when they're moving through.

Obviously, there's some individuals that might spend a lot more time here than others, but the big pulses will come down from the north on their way to the Deep South.

And there's different ways you can figure that out.

There's tracking, I think the rough Grouse society or American Woodcock Society has a kind of a migration tracker that's a that's a decent way to do it.

Talking to other sports people that hunt woodcock There's unfortunately not a lot of woodcock hunters in the state of Kentucky, which is always kind of vexed me.

I have a bird dog myself for upland birds, and it's a great way to get your dog out there.

They're really good for young dogs.

They hold really well and they can really get stacked up in the state of Kentucky.

It's not they're not like I said, they're not here.

They're not like Bob White that stay here year round and we can hunt for many months out of the year.

It's a pretty short season, but sometimes within that short season they can be really stacked up.

And so they frequent areas, bottomland areas, bottomland hardwoods, as well as they're especially in these really thick early successional is what we call early successsional forests are forest where there's a pole, a little tree that's the size of a pole here and here, and it's really hard to get through.

That's where the woodcock are going to be.

Moist soil, so Woodcock eat almost exclusively earthworms.

And so anywhere you think there'd be earthworms up next to the surface of the ground, that's where they're going to be with that heavy cover aspect.

And again, like I said, there's I've been woodcock hunting a lot on some of our WMA█s and I have never ran into another woodcock hunter, you know.

So yeah.

So it's again, it's a great way to run your dog on some birds if you're in between seasons.

Or you█re just trying to freshen your dog up.

It's really a good place to be.

We have a lot of WMA█s, especially our WMA█s that are associated with corp property that have some of these bottomland or, or very moist areas.

Dix River is coming to mind.

Dix River WMA has some good areas for that.

That's kind of in south central Kentucky.

But again, I would, you know, look on our website go to our website and if you see an area that you think there might be some some of that sort of wet early seasonal habitat, call the WMA manager.

So we have public lands biologists that are on these areas that know the areas like the back of their hands and they'll be able to tell if they've been seeing woodcock.

The woodcock is a fascinating bird too, is it not?

I mean if you go and do a little bit of research on a woodcock, it's hard to not love would love these birds.

They█ve got their their mating dance.

And the way they do that and the way that they do their flying and spiral.

We actually just showed down around Madison, over in Madison County, and we were doing a show on Woodcock.

And so what you want to be amused, Google the American Woodcock dance and pretty interesting animal.

The next question here is from Carter If I live in zone two for deer, can I go to zone one and harvest unlimited does and then return to zone zone two and still have my four deer tags for zone two?

Yes, good question.

Great.

Because this is a question that there was some confusion.

And when he says, well, I live here, it doesn't matter where you live at all right.

Yep.

It all only matters on where where you're hunting.

And number of deer taking in that, not county, but zone.

In that zone because you could go from zone two be in a different county zone two, still taking deer from zone two, right?

Yes.

So give me a quick overview of how this works.

Yeah.

So first off, there's a really good the the Hunting Guide folks put together a really good chart because this was one of those things that we thought was confusing for years and years and years.

But essentially, yeah, in any zone two counties, you're stuck to that zone two bag limit, that four deer bag limit, you can then hop over to zone one, Kill Unlimited, You can then hop down to zone four and kill, you know, the zone four limit.

So it's what zone you're in.

You got nothing to do with what particular county you're in, but what sector of zones.

And you're basically following what's outlined in that chart.

Interesting thing, we talk about unlimited doe harvest and this is in zone zone one counties.

And you know, people ask me all the time, oh my gosh, how in the world do they have unlimited doe harvest?

But the interesting thing is, is that the end of the year when you pull all your data, a perfect ratio would be a 50/50 ratio between males and females, or a does and bucks taken, right?

Yes.

With unlimited doe harvest in all zone one and four in zone two.

Yep.

And some areas you're only allowed to take bucks in zone four.

What's our ratio look like?

Yeah, it's about I mean, it's a little bit doe skewed.

I mean the good thing about what we are, the hunters here in Kentucky is they will put a doe or multiple does in the freezer, which is great.

And that's helped really spearhead the bucks that we have here in Kentucky.

So we've got hundreds that'll go out and go after those does, and you don't see that in a lot of other states.

You know, they're they're purely buck hunters.

So that's a great thing here.

Yeah.

But it's it's still not it's not too far off from 50/50, right.

It's pretty close.

So a lot of people will, you know, they want the antlers and they're going to hunt and they take one deer and they're kind of, okay, I'm done.

Well, those people that are taking unlimited does in zone ones are doing that in areas where the population needs to be reduced a little bit.

Yeah.

And the quality venison is out there that's go out and take a doe.

Yep.

Tell you what, I take full advantage of that every year and love to put a couple in the freezer And I will say it's still one buck limit regardless of what zone you█re in.

Left that off the the front part of that explanation.

It doesn't matter what zone.

Doesn█t matter what zone, one buck per year.

Yep yep.

Important thing to remember with that is you know people hear unlimited does, they still have to have a permit for that doe.

So you can, your statewide permit comes with four deer but then once you fill all those all those deer then you can buy additional deer permits as well.

And you get two for $15?

Two for $15.

So you get four when you buy your initial deer tags.

And then if you fill fill those four and you want additional deer, additional deer permits, you get two deer and it's a 15.

$15 go buy two additional tags.

Interestingly enough, I know several years ago we changed it, but we used to be a buck tag and a dog tag.

And now if you want to go an unlimited county and kill for does, and then go buy your tag, you still have a buck tag.

And so you don't, there's no fear or concerns there.

You can, you get one buck.

As long as you have one antler deer checked in.

Yup.

One buck tag.

All right.

There you go.

Next question is from Daniel.

I was seeing more rabbits on my farm and then I started seeing more bobcats and the rabbits seem to be gone.

Any tips?

That's a great question.

And believe it or not, not an uncommon one.

And so I guess I would like to have a conversation with this person, ask more questions.

Generally speaking, is the issue of not seeing as many rabbits are probably depends on the season.

Maybe the, you know, the brush and stuff has grown up more.

So it might be a lot of times when we have this question, sometimes it comes down to are they actually there and you're not observing them, Are they actually not there?

Right.

And if you seeing more bobcats, that's really neat.

I don't see that many bobcats, you know what I mean.

Yeah.

And you know a lot recently with not only small game but other game species, a lot of predation management and stuff has come into coming to the conversation.

So going out and trying to do something about the predators to help the small game and kind of the the boilerplate thing that we tell people again, there's could be a lot going on in that question.

But where I'd like to start at is, you know, these animals have existed with predators for eons right there.

They can get away from them given the right resources.

They're able to live and outlive and outnumber the predators.

Right.

We know that.

And generally speaking, if we're seeing more one of the other, it's a habitat issue, right?

So they don't have enough resources to to hide from that predator or they don't have enough nesting resources, for instance, or any other life stage resource that they might need that might be missing.

And so I'd say, you know, maybe think about what has changed if nothing's changed on their farm, what's changed around their farm or the property they hunt, Maybe somebody new moved in and they were raising cattle, but now they just bushhog the whole place, you know.

So again, just reducing the amount of cover around that area that they're hunting.

And yeah, the predation thing has been brought up a lot.

There's, there's no doubt with the ban and with DDT many years ago and stuff like that, we're seeing more hawks and more raptor species.

Those things will take rabbits.

Bobcat Numbers are going up, so are coyote numbers and stuff like that.

But again, the very first thing we want to talk about is is the habitat, because that's easier to do.

Sometimes people think, okay, I'm seeing the bobcat, I'm going to go out into a trap, all the bobcats, and then I'll have all these rabbits.

And in theory, that that makes sense.

I mean, that totally makes sense.

But in reality, we know from the academic studies and there's there's been a lot of this interest, especially in the Deep South in concerning quail.

It's actually really hard to get every last bobcat, especially if say, you own 40 acres or 400 acres, you know, all the other bobcats around where you can trap are going to come back into that place.

You'll never actually be able to get ahead of that.

And that takes, that's 365 days a year.

The range is an incredible bobcat range can be counties.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah.

Multiple counting.

So it's the fact that they are seeing bobcats is really interesting because you don't, you know, I spend a lot of time in the woods.

I see bobcats in and around the lakes from time to time.

Not a lot.

You don't see a lot of bobcats.

Yeah, now they're around.

They're pretty elusive.

They're around.

They're very elusive, yeah.

Most counties, I think, probably do have bobcats in Kentucky.

But it's, you know, the fact that they're seeing bobcats is pretty unique.

Now, if they really want to protect the rabbits, you do it.

Yeah, don█t bush hog., Bush hog.

Don█t bush hog.

Make sure you let things grow up.

So they got an opportunity to get away.

And then if that doesn't work out and you decide you want to legally harvest or trap bobcats, well, that's a great hobby to get into.

Yeah, we have a nice long season for that to do it, and that's totally an option on the table.

But I like to I always like to say, you know, going out there, running the trap sets, that's a lot of work.

Just not mowing oftentimes is much easier.

It's not doing anything, you know, I mean, in some instances, not doing stuff is actually the best thing you can do for the small game in the Commonwealth.

Very good.

Next question is from Griff wants to know if the Department of Fish and Wildlife ever work with cities regarding high deer populations.

Do we have cities that contact us going, Hey, know, we got to do something.

We got too many deer?

Yeah.

And how, how, how, how do we work with that?

Absolutely.

Variety of different things.

We've had a number of parks that have approached us with some overpopulated deer and it's very, very situation specific.

We've had a number of of fairly successful urban deer kick offs, mainly with archery equipment over the years.

And it's just something that with the bureaucracy and the fact that it's an urban setting tend to take time.

Certainly call one of our call one of us call one of our deer biologist and we'll check the situation out.

Might already have something in the works in that area.

You know our urban urban bow hunting is such a unique opportunity.

Yeah.

Everyone talks about wanting to have a piece of deer hunting property close to home.

Well, if you live in a urban area and you have maybe five or six acres, it doesn't take a lot.

No.

It█s a great opportunity to take deer.

And some people are like, Oh my gosh, you're shooting these pet deer.

Well, you're probably doing those deer a favor because as they become very, very, very used to seeing humans and people are feeding them out in their backyard all the time, there could be complications there with overpopulation.

Absolutely.

Being run over by cars.

I mean, deer need to have a fear response of humans.

That's why it works best and get out there and hunt them a little bit.

And you maybe not the deer that you take, but you might be doing the herd a favor, Right?

Next question is from Joseph Why doesn't Kentucky have a wanton waste law?

We actually do.

Okay.

It's a brand new law that went to effect just this past June.

Okay.

Before we did not have a wanton waste law so you could take as little or as much of the meat as you wanted.

With the new one In effect, it states that you have to take all four quarters and the back round roasts at the very least.

Okay.

So it's hopefully it's going to be a big improvement.

We don't see as much waste, you know, carcasses dumped with just the back straps cut out.

Let me ask you a question.

So let's say that it's deer season and you're using a firearm and you put it right where a lot of people want right through that front shoulder.

And it's a significant amount of damage.

Right.

And are you still are you still legally required to remove them?

Even if you're looking at it, you're like, okay, it's lead bullets.

It█s lead.

I really don't want to eat this front part because it's shot through there.

How do you handle that?

Well, with it being a new rule, a new law, new regulation, we haven't come across that yet.

Yeah, Yeah.

But I think that a lot of officers have enough knowledge and and discretion to to be able to look at that and say, okay, you know, there's there's not much to salvage from this piece.

So you've taken everything else that you could.

So you know, I'm not going to say cut a break but it's understandable that there's nothing to harvest off that quarter.

Yeah, I gotcha.

Because if some people do intentionally try to show you want to put one down right there, perfectly placed shot takes out both legs and vitals and down they go.

Absolutely.

It's going to make it a little different on the on the as far as the meat you're going to get to take from there.

So very good.

Very good to know that that wanton waste law is now in effect here in Kentucky.

Next question is from Shafer.

Why did the youth and muzzleloader seasons get moved back in October?

Yeah, we had a weird calendar this year.

So that's the that's the answer to that one.

So, you know in reg Youth is the second Saturday in in just this year, third Saturday in October and we've just got an extra we've got a little weird calendar this year, messed up messed up elk season a little bit and split some stuff up.

But they, they've not been changed from previous and we'll be back to that to that regular calendar.

A lot of our seasons, be it opening day for deer season turkey season we see this all the time.

Turkey season can range from it's something like the 12th all the way up to the 18th or 19th or something.

Yeah, usually they're not written on.

It opens up on the first.

It's usually like the first Saturday after the.

Yeah.

And that's what's happened here.

It just so happens to be that the date is pushed back.

It would seem to be a week later, but it's not really a week later.

It's Yeah, four or five days later.

It is.

It is.

We've got an extra there's like an extra Saturday in September or something that kind of threw it off or I was thinking the same thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

And that's the same thing with muzzleloader, exactly the same?

It is.

It'll be the weekend that follows.

So I think it's a 20 year.

I think it's the 14th for youth and the 21st for muzzleloader.

Okay.

All right.

I tell you what, that youth season is usually really, really good.

Yeah.

I'll tell you what.

You know, the bad thing is, is it's a short window, so we hope the weather's right.

But man, if you've got a youth, you want to get out in the woods, get them out shooting now, get them to the range and and start getting prepared and ready because it's usually a lot of deer moving during that time.

It usually hits really, really, really good for deer movement.

So next question is from Justin.

What is the chance of seeing year round nuisance trapping?

Who wants to take this one?

There's there's a couple different ways that they can do it.

They can contact their local officer, explain the situation, and either that officer or the regional biologists can get involved and see if it justifies it.

And then there's some forms that can be filled and they basically get permission to do it.

It has to be within reason.

What they're going to target has to be in the act of depredation when it's trapped.

So if it's, you know, a coyote or raccoon getting in your chicken coop, you know, it has to be that immediate vicinity around that chicken coop.

It's not like you can put your traps out in the back of the property, but the act of depredation is is the key part.

Okay.

All right.

Next question here is from Jordan Hicks.

What's the expectation on capping And quartering a bear in the woods after the harvest to stay legal?

I don't know if this the wanton waste law, but I don't know what they're exactly.

It's talking about leaving weight.

And so you can measure the size.

I'm not sure what they're asking, but tell me what you need to do.

If you're a bear hunter and you harvest a bear to stay legal.

The biggest thing that you have to do with the new system, where it has to be physically checked, you have to leave your genitalia attached to tell the sex so that they want the skull and the cape.

And as long as there's attached genitalia so that you can determine the sex, that's all it needs.

So if you're going to cape it out, leave something attached so we can tell it's a boy or girl.

Okay.

All right.

There you go.

Next question is from Holden.

Why aren't bikes or e-bikes legal for wildlife management areas?

And you get any ideas here?

I'll tell you what, they are getting popular.

We watch TV shows.

I don't know if they're getting popular and if you're seeing more of them, you're out.

You're out all the time.

Are you seeing more people using these bike?

I've yet to see any in my area.

Of course, I'm up in northern Kentucky and it's a lot of hollers and dips.

It's nothing like the mountains in eastern Kentucky, but I have not seen any at all really, that I can recall.

I know there's been more of them.

I've heard like down in western Kentucky and stuff, places where it's a little flatter.

But they sponsor some of these TV shows.

So I think that they seem to be maybe being used more than they're actually being used.

But you see people that are using them.

And if you go to a trade show of some sort, they're going to be there.

You're going to see them.

So they're essentially talking about these big fat tire like bikes that people use to get off the road a little further than what a most part of most people are willing to just walk.

So and right now, they they e-bikes, they're not legal.

Or what about regular bikes?

Regular bikes?

I don't I don't know the the case I'm thinking of I don't know if it's just a WMA specific rule, but some of the ones I'm thinking of off the top of my head, you're not allowed to have bikes in there.

Okay.

And that's I think the I'm not sure exactly where that came up or had did.

But I believe the the hope behind that was again, to kind of preserve the tradition of walking in and hunting.

And we manage access if we have a gate up or something like that, our WMA█s mostly we try to manage that access and keep it in a way that we can get back in there and do management right.

And so if we have motorized vehicles or something back there that kind of confound some of those activities we might be able to do if we have people getting farther and deeper in those areas.

Sometimes too, you got to think, okay, I'm thinking as of I'm a conservation officer and I have a a nice WMA for archery hunting in a more of a, like Taylorsville Lake, not that far away from the city.

Man.

Do you really want to open that up to every person who's a biker May not even be a hunter to go, Hey, I've got this new piece of property that I can bike ride on, and it turns out to be you're trying to hunt on a wildlife managed area, managed with sportsmen's dollars.

But yet you go out here and you got 15 people on mountain bikes riding by you while you're trying to hunt.

That would be somewhat frustrating too.

So careful what you ask for sometimes, right?

Yeah, right.

Yeah, very true.

And on all these WMA█s we're always trying to manage access, plus quality experience for people, right?

And that's what we try to showcase on our wildlife management areas is quality management and a quality experience for our sportspeople.

And so I think that that having bikes out there might run counter to some of those kind of theories.

So that's, that's what I'd say, yeah.

Chase Parker wants to know if you only get five days off work to hunt the rut which five days are you going to take?

Sounds like, it sounds like Chase is getting ready to put-in for some vacation.

That's right.

I█m going to say starting about Halloween.

Yeah.

Would be my pick.

I will preface that with I'm not the the best archery hunter so better take that advice from somebody else.

You know what you picked you picked right on all the dates I'd pick.

As an archer, as an archer, I always say the first week in November is absolute prime.

That's my, if I could have the first week in November for the entire season, that's what I would take.

Weather's right, deer movement is starting to really take place.

And I'm an archer, so I want to be out there before the multitude of big bucks have been taken off the landscape.

So what about yourself?

Just being out in the field working, I mean, like you said, Halloween pretty much up until the beginning of modern gun season.

There's there's just a huge uptick in traffic and activity.

The amount of people that are at WMA█s.

You know, you start seeing trucks in places more during the week than just the weekends.

So I kind of agree it's right around Halloween.

Up until then.

Cody, what what five days are you taking for deer Hunting?

Are you deer hunter?

I know you're a small game guy, but you deer as well, right?

I deer hunt as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm trying to think if I can better that answer at all.

And yeah, I mean, I got to agree with the Halloween time frame.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, I haven't had a lot of success hunting late, you know, the fabled second rut and stuff like that.

I think there's there's something in there.

Like, you could be successful kind of later in the season like that, but I just personally haven't had a lot of success.

For people who really watch the solunar chart and the moon's.

So what moon phase is It is the red moon they talk about that everybody says, Oh, that's the time to be in there?

I█ve heard something about that.

So I know a lot of people really pay attention to that.

I'm sure there's something to it.

So yeah, maybe if you█re trying to pick some days, look at that.

You can't can't do it by weather because you don't know what you're going to get.

But if you can kind of look at moon phases and patterns, it might not be a bad approach to depending on if you're a bow hunter or a gun hunter, but I'm with you.

If someone just says, pick a date, no other information other than just the calendar.

I'm going first week in November, last the last couple of days, October, 1st week in November.

Next question here is from John.

What are the best places to quail hunt in the state?

And I guess we probably need to talk about public land or counties, however you wanted to go about it.

Yeah, well, I love plugging our public lands.

And so the number one place I like to personally going on is Peabody WMA in Ohio and Muhlenberg Counties.

So we have, that WMA is huge.

It's almost 40, right now it's almost 40,000 acres in size.

There's two tracks that the Green River kind of splits, the Sinclair unit, which the main office is on in the Kent unit, which is across the river.

And both those tracks, it's reclaimed coal ground.

There's a lot of open lands out there.

It's it's varied.

That's probably one of our best areas, public land areas to where we have some of our highest numbers out there.

They're very much scattered across that landscape.

And so when I tell people it depends on what I'm talking to, if they want to come to Kentucky or they're in Kentucky and they want to hunt birds, it depends on what kind of the expectations are.

And for Kentucky, it's about as good as it gets.

Honestly, You know, you'll be walking a lot and you'll be able to see a lot of cool stuff out there and really putting the rubber to the road.

But but yes, that's totally worth it.

We have another WMA in northeast Kentucky called Clay WMA, that's in Nicholas and Bath County, and a similar thing.

Most of that WMA is actually forested, being in the eastern part of the state, but they have good quality, the open lands they have are very quality open lands.

Again, a lot of native plants and stuff like that.

And on the there's a couple of tracks out there that are the T57 track is really good.

That's kind of a smaller track and there's some other ones around on that unit as well and there's good numbers up there and we were just talking about east Kentucky, a lot of the reclaimed coal ground, the Hunter access areas, those are they got birds out there.

And as we were talking about earlier in the show, there's not that many people out there utilizing these areas for for upland hunting.

Yeah.

There's people out here watching us on a keyboard right now and those guys, that love Clay WMA, they█re pounding that keyboard there, you're getting you're getting a good talking to I think the keyboard right now, he's giving away our secret spot.

Clay WMA is a really is a really good spot if you've never been out there if you're a small game person.

Yes.

It's wonderful.

And I'll tell you, we keep really close tabs on Peabody, Clay and Rock Castle River WMA for our for our small game populations.

We have Hunter check in and check out.

It's mandatory on the site.

You have to check in and check out and write down how many birds you saw and how many rabbits you saw and stuff like that.

And you know, through those data and I've been telling this ever since I started working here six years ago, I've been telling people the same spots and I go out there and hunt myself on the weekdays.

I hunt on the weekends, and I'm not seeing, and I understand there is pressure, you know, that that's what we have to get to interact with each other in these tough times, you know?

And it is different than than hunting on private land where you might have it all to yourself.

But with these WMA█s, the quality of the habitat is there that we believe at this point it can handle that pressure.

If we can handle getting along with each other.

You know what I mean?

I've interacted with a lot of different sports people 99% of the time.

If I do see somebody out there, it's a positive interaction.

You know, a small game hunters are kind of a dwindling segment of the hunting population, which is a shame because, I mean, I know this is preaching to the choir for you, Chad, but, you know, small game hunting is fast paced.

It's great to get young people involved in.

You don't have to be a great shot.

You have to be a great woodsman.

Yet, you know, to to do some of this stuff, whether it's squirrel, rabbit, quail, even woodcock, stuff like that, it's a great way to interact with dogs in the chase.

And I think it's where every hunters should start.

I mean, I really do.

Youth hunters, you know, you want to get into hunting small game hunting behind a dog is probably if you want to want to stay with hunting, you know, putting them in a deer stand in November and tell them, don't say a word, you know, don't move.

It's really kind of hard to keep someone's interest level up.

It's hard to explain how exciting it's going to be when you finally get that opportunity.

Putting somebody behind a dog in a in a small game situation, it's always exciting.

And you know what?

Be loud if you want, rub the dog, play around, whatever.

I mean, it's just it's such a unique opportunity.

That's the way to get kids involved in the outdoors is.

Oh yeah.

Behind a dog, small game hunting.

Right, or getting somebody back into hunting.

You know, I've I've done that a couple of times where they've done in the past and now maybe they forgot how fun it was and you take them out again and boom, they're hope again.

Yeah, absolutely.

Jacob wants to know when can I apply for the elk hunt In 2024?

Yeah, right now for the 2o24 season.

So we've just this year changed regulations and the application period opens on August 1st.

Okay.

And will going forward.

So it used to be January one.

We back that up through the fall mainly because this is when we're all thinking about hunting.

We've got a lot of folks that, you know, jumping on to get their license for deer season.

You can go ahead and get that elk draw for 24.

What's the window now for quotas hunts?

Because the quotas, I mean, the deer seasons, I mean, it█s here for archery.

When is the time for quota hunting and when does the drawing take place?

Yeah, it's still the month of September.

So closes September 30.

And then they do the drawing just as quick afterwards as they can.

So if you want to put in for quota hunt, you don't have many days.

You're better, you better be getting on the computer and getting that taken care of.

So and then they do the drawing almost immediately after a couple of days after the 30.

A couple of days, and usually the first week of October, they've got some results out.

All right.

Evan Miller wants to know any gut shot tracking do's and don'ts.

Man, this is this is interesting.

I'm assuming he's talking about deer.

So gut shot do's and don'ts.

Got any got any tips here?

Patience.

Yeah, Yeah, I think so.

So you make a smoke shot on a we're going to talk mainly archery because that's kind of what's going in right now.

And you make a shot and you're like, all right, that, that that arrow hit right where I wanted it, confirmed it, saw it.

How long you wait?

I'm a I'm an hour myself.

Okay.

If I can sit there and be if I don't hear it crash, see it drop.

Yeah.

I'm just very much you know, you're not taking a chance.

Sitting.

Okay, so.

And if you make a shot, you're like, I'm not sure how long you waiting?

Well, then that's when you got to start.

The hamster wheel starts churning.

All the bad thoughts coming to you.

Oh, and it just it really depends on where that shot goes.

But I'm all for waiting and give them, you know, give them some time.

My, my, my general rule on this is, you know, I see it go down.

I'm still waiting 20, 25 minutes.

I'll make a just a shot that I'm 100% sure about.

I'm probably going to walk down to the arrow site 30 to 35-40 minutes, confirmed that every indication is exactly what I thought.

If I don't think it's a great shot.

My general rule is 2 hours walk, locate the arrow, see what information that gives me, because it's going to give you some information.

I mean, the color of the blood, what it looks like, smell the arrow, all the things that you can kind of confirm what you thought.

And then I will look until I lose blood the first time, and then I'll back out and give it two more hours.

That's typically the way I'd like to go about it.

Now.

Things change.

You got to look at the weather.

I mean, that's the first thing.

If I make a shot that I don't think is absolutely perfect and it's an evening hunt especially, I'm, what█s the temperatures get down to tonight?

I mean, I want to know that type of information.

If it's it's going to be warm.

I'm locating the dog.

I'm going to get a dog tracker on it.

Usually a couple hours after I knew I made that shot.

But because you you know, you want it, you locate them as fast as you can in that situation.

So any other tips for tracking one that you're not sure about your shot, just like you said, inspecting that arrow.

And another big thing is, is if you you know, you've got the sign and you start that track, tread carefully because you know, even if you've got good blood and maybe that deer is just bedded down, you could bump them.

Yeah.

And that that bump after that initial bed can sometimes be the deal breaker because they get bumped and they're already on high alert.

They're gone.

Oh, yeah.

And I will tell you this, too.

If I didn't put this out there by my good friend, Rachel Crume would probably be like, Hey, you should have mentioned.

She's, she's got a dog, a deer tracking dog.

We've showcased her on the show.

She if you make a shot you're not sure about.

She said the more you walk behind that deer, you're picking up scent on your shoes of that deer and you're spreading it out.

It can make it very confusing for for a dog to track.

She's like, Hey, do you think you're going to bring a dog in there?

Don't walk that trail and then track around looking for it because you're you're you're you're messing with the scent trial.

So she she would probably want to make sure that I let you know that hey, don't track all through there if you're going to be getting a dog because you may it more difficult for you and the dog, so.

The amount of tracker you know tracking dogs just in the past couple of years has really gone up just from what I've seen and heard of.

Yeah.

In the field.

So yeah, if somebody is not sure, they, they probably have a dog somewhere close to them.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Hey, some of those dogs are just fantastic too.

I've seen some really, really good dogs that go right to your dear.

It's amazing.

Next question.

Samantha.

How can I get my hunter education certification before firearm season?

This is an interesting question because this is the time of year, right?

That everybody's like, oh my gosh, I said I was going to get that done.

Tell me, tell me the process.

And if you have never applied for an exemption, tell me about that and the process that a person needs to go through to get their hunter safety card.

I try to convince people that to save that exemption, you know, like last minute type of situation.

Yeah.

The big thing is now you can do the classroom portion of the hunter, the hunter education online.

You can get all that knocked out from the comfort of your own home and then get on a website and find the nearest range day.

Sometimes it's not as close as you'd want it to be.

You might have to travel, but if it's to just knock out the Range day portion, it might be worth it.

You're not wasting, you're not spending a whole day in the class and the range day.

And then most of the instructors that I know in my area that I work with when I help teach classes, they're very accommodating to anybody who just wants to show up for the Range Day portion.

Most of their contact information is on the on the website so they can shoot them an email or give them a call and just tell them like, Look, I've already done the online portion, can I just show up the range?

And they'll usually take care of you.

Todd Hoskins wants to know, why don't we have a preference point system for the elk draw?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

So the big the big issue we've got here is we've got lots of people applying and a very small segment of those people actually drawing a tag.

And there was some statistics out west, you know, 400,000 people apply and 100,000 people get a tag for that year.

So that other 300 is building those points.

We don't really have an opportunity to build points here.

What we did do is we've got a royalty redraw system, which was this is the first year that those folks are actually out hunting now, number of consecutive years that you've put in puts you in the in a position to get the the the permits that aren█t purchased.

So that is a de facto preference point system based on your numbers of applications, but it just wouldn't work.

We've run the statistics every way around it and you're talking a tiny, minuscule advantage.

And then your grandkid or kid that hasn't put in is guaranteed never to get one.

Yeah.

With a preference points system.

You know, it's, we get asked this question about preference points.

And the Department of Fish Well is not anti preference point system.

We actually have a preference point system right?

Yeah.

For duck blinds and and other areas.

Yeah.

Deer quotas.

Deer quotas.

We use a preference point system.

It's just the elk population.

It's such a big number of applicant and a small number of drawn that this was a good compromise I think.

We're going to hear more about what people think about it.

This is the first year, let's say they're hunting right now, but especially for people that are put in for all of the hunts and still were not drawn, they were given first opportunity for unclaimed tags this year and now they're going to be on the Hunter list or that that list is going to get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller.

So if you are one of these very unlucky people that have put in 20 years now and not been drawn, you keep doing it the next two, three years, you're going to get a phone call.

Yeah, you're going to you're going to get a tag.

It's it's that close right now.

The numbers of those individuals that have put in every single year without being drawn is getting smaller and smaller and smaller.

Absolutely.

It's not technically a preference point system, but it's a loyalty, loyalty system.

Yeah.

Rewarding the people to put in every year.

Yep.

Next question.

This is from Elizabeth.

How would my standard poodle stand up against Typical setters are pointers while upland hunting?

People do hunt with poodles, do they not?

Yeah, no, it's one of the it's one of the oldest gun dog breeds in the world really.

Yeah.

And there's other there's people in the Deep South that hunt them a lot on Bob White and other quail species as well.

That's a great question and I represent all small game hunters.

I personally I'm an English setter.

So, you know, I would say that I'm sure it would do just fine.

Those those types of dogs are more flushing dogs.

So the setters and the the German shorthair pointers, other pointing dogs, you kind of cast them out and they'll go and point and set on the on the animals, on the birds.

And then you go to that, you go to that animal and then you go flush the birds and shoot them, the poodles and the labs and other stuff like that, you can use them for up on hunting.

They stay lot closer to you and they'll just quarter back and forth right in front of you and they'll kind of stumble into the birds and flush them up.

And so I would imagine it would do just as well as my English setter.

Yeah, Yeah.

That had to not be easy for you to say that.

You know, it's so crazy we get all caught up in these pure breed dogs.

But if your dog likes to hunt, your dog likes to hunt, and if it will get out there and push through that brush and gives you extra legs and noses on the ground, then you got a better chance to jump game.

So, you know, I'm I'm a houndsman and like the beagles, but for you, who's an English guy to go, you know what?

There's a good chance that that poodle may be just as good.

Oh, yeah, maybe so.

Yeah.

All these dogs have been bred.

They all kind of started from their initial descent and have been bred to do very specific things.

But that don't mean they're good at it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I totally agree.

Everybody's had great hunting dogs.

If you've had dogs for a long period of time, you probably had that one or two that every time you think about it puts a smile on your face because that dog just had that desire to hunt.

But you know what?

The two greatest dogs in the world could have a litter that none of them will hunt worth a crap, you just don't know.

It's just part of it.

So maybe poodles, it's got the desire to hunt.

It may be the way to go.

Yeah, that's what I tell a lot of people.

You know, traditionally, if you're going to hunt quail or grouse or woodcock in the state of Kentucky, it helps a lot to have a dog.

You almost have to have a dog.

And sometimes that can be a little intimidating to get started in having dogs.

Well, you just said, you know, generally speaking, they either have it or they don't.

There's really very little training that goes goes into having a good field dog.

Right.

We're not talking about field trials or something where you're trying to get the dog to do something very specific.

Right.

If you just want a hunting companion and sure, they might bust a few coveys on you before you get there or something like that.

If you just want a hunting companion, you know, go talk to.

There's a lot of Game Bird chapters out there, Quail Forever, Pheasants Forever and stuff like that.

These people would be super excited to to talk to you about it and, you know, check it out.

Again, a lot of people think there's so much training that goes into this.

I trained my dog myself for 15 minutes a day when he was a puppy and and he's he's not the best dog in the world, but he's a great hunting companion.

And I wouldn't have him any other way.

That's great.

Great information there.

Next question.

Tyler, what type of fall hunting are you most looking forward to?

Man, this is going to run the gamut right here.

Get a big game coordinator, small game coordinator, Conservation officer What what are you most looking forward to?

Man I've got a so we were shooting Sunday.

I've got a buddy from college.

He's got a 12 year old.

He's going on his first deer hunt to my parents farm on youth weekend.

Shot the gun a little bit, got him lined out last weekend.

That's probably what I'm most excited about right now.

What caliber are you taking with this young man?

So I'm letting him borrow a 300 blackout.

Bolt, bolt action.

Okay.

300 black, sounds like a big gun, but those blackouts are great for,.

Yeah.

No kick.

Yeah.

So.

And he was handling it well.

All right.

Very, very, very good.

What are you most looking forward to?

I'm just looking forward to quail hunting in East Kentucky.

Okay.

I haven't been out in that country much.

And I'm getting some really good reports, again some of our Hunter access areas.

Also a couple specific reports about people seeing a lot of birds.

So I'm excited to go out there.

We've been doing a lot of habitat management.

We actually have an initiative going on right now to do a lot of prescribed fire in that country.

And I went out there and turkey hunted some of the areas that we had burned last spring and actually was successful getting a turkey.

While I was out there, I did hear Bob White and I want to go back out there and hunt some of those areas that we've been doing, prescribed fire.

There you go.

I knew is going to run the gamut here.

What about yourself?

Mine shifts a lot.

So, you know, deer on camera and stuff that always gets you excited.

I have one buck in particular that I've been playing cat and mouse for three years now.

Okay, Love you get an opportunity to get him.

But as I get later into the fall, I really start looking forward to what else comes in.

So I try to waterfowl hunt.

My area is not the best for it, but I always get excited for that.

Oh yeah, You know, that is a beautiful thing about Kentucky, there are a lot of opportunities and I get asked this question a lot.

If you got to one day to hunt the rest of your life, would it be?

And you know, we talked about being behind a dog.

I would probably do some form of small game.

For me, it would probably be a rabbit hunt.

I just really, really, really, really enjoy that.

It's not it's not my favorite way to fill the freezer.

But as far as just a day out, walking, communicating because it's such a social event and utilizing some dogs to run run rabbits, that would probably be what I'm most looking forward to.

But the great thing about that is taking rabbits is fun.

But you know, I go out and run dogs, not during the season, so I say I'm looking forward to it.

I█ll have my dogs on the ground next week somewhere, you know, So you can do that before the season gets here.

You just can't take rabbits.

But so I really, really enjoy enjoy that aspect of it.

Hopefully you learned something new tonight and or you're looking forward to hunting here in Kentucky this fall.

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.