This week on Kentucky Afield.

Knowing which fishing line to throw can be tricky.

We'll talk through that problem and provide a few solutions.

Then, we're putting our line to the test by wetting it in the Ohio River.

It's all next on Kentucky Afield.

Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

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

I would argue that one of the most important tools when going fishing is your fishing line.

Let's take a look at some of the basics and let's check out a new technique that is rising in popularity.

Well, I am super excited to be hitting the water today.

Today's fishing trip, like most fishing trips, a lot of time starts right here.

And that is the planning stage of the fishing trip.

Right now is where I'm kind of thinking about where we're going fishing, what gear and equipment we're going to need and what type of tackle we're going to be throwing.

Another important thing to consider is fishing line.

Man there's a whole host of different types of fishing lines out there, different colors, different pound weights, different materials.

Really you've got three or four different materials that the vast majority of the fishing lines are made from.

And each one has its own unique reason that you'd want to own it or use it for fishing.

First off, you've got monofilament line.

It's been around forever.

If you've fished a few times in your life, you probably have used Monofilament Line.

It is absolutely great for pan fishing and if you're pulling a bait that's moving through the water where you'd want it to have a little bit of stretch and a little bit of give.

Great for throwing a crank bait.

Great for throwing something like a spinner bait.

Something that you want a little bit of give.

A lot of times that's what you use a monofilament line.

It also is pretty forgiving.

Secondly, now you have fluorocarbon.

Fluorocarbon is something that was introduced years ago for saltwater but has become super popular with freshwater fishermen.

Now, what's different about a fluorocarbon line?

Fluorocarbon line is almost completely invisible.

It does not absorb any water and it doesn't hardly stretch.

Fluorocarbon line, If you go to set the hook you rear back and you hit one with fluorocarbon line.

It's not hardly stretching, very little stretch right to the bait that increases your hook ups.

But fluorocarbon can be a little harder to use.

It has a little more memory, kinks a little bit crimps in there.

If you get a knot and try to pick it out, it's not as forgiving.

And then you've got braid.

Braided fishing line It's something that most fishermen use some form or fashion of braid.

And the reason they use it, it is so incredibly strong.

And the pound test, meaning the weight, the load that it will hold for the diameter of the line, is really, really, really, really strong.

Meaning you can make a real long cast.

It is abrasion resistant, almost no stretch like fluorocarbon.

Even more so when you set the hook, man, they are on there.

So it gives you a lot of things to think about when you go fishing next time to try to decide what the best fishing line for you, or there's an option to use a combination of two.

And that is something that I'm starting to see a whole lot more out in the fishing world, especially with professional fishermen or guides.

I see them using a combination of braided fishing line to a leader, and that leader could be mono or fluorocarbon.

And I'll tell you what, that's something that's getting more and more and more popular.

One of my good fishing buddies uses this technique a lot.

I would consider him an expert at this.

And we're going to catch up with him.

We're going to learn a little bit more about this trend of throwing a braided fishing line to a leader and find out exactly why it works well for him and find out if it might be something that works well for you as well.

We're out here today at Taylorsville Lake fishing with my good buddy Bill.

Now, Bill, I've noticed for a couple of years now, a lot of times we've got fishing in most applications.

I see you throwing a braided line to a leader.

Tell me exactly why you do that and what type of knot do you like to tie to a join the two lines together?

It took me a while to find the right knot and the right combination.

But it saves you.

Saves you line.

Braid can last a year.

Turn it over, last another year.

You may go through one quality spool of fluorocarbon a year.

You can literally flip the bell on this, take a new reel, run it in the eyelets and literally real it off of one reel right onto the next.

And what you've done is you've taken the outside line that you've been casting and throwing.

You've reeled it on to the back of the spool, and now you're casting the line that was on the bottom.

And it's never been used.

Never.

It's never been used.

So you can literally get two years pretty easily out of a good thing of braided line?

Oh, easy, easy.

And you can use just instead of using multiple spools a very costly fluorocarbon one spool a year a 200 yards spool can last you a year.

Yeah.

Oh, it's unbelievable.

Plus, you don't have the breakage.

If you were to use straight braid.

Straight braid is not real abrasion resistance, but with fluorocarbon leaders, fluorocarbon is very abrasion resistant and you get the same feel probably better feel out of the braid to fluorocarbon as you would monofilament or straight fluorocarbon.

So you're getting much longer casts much longer, much better hooks.

Yes.

Let's go ahead and rig a couple up and show me exactly how you do the FG knot.

First, I start out my braid, basically put it around my pinky finger like that, and I take my fluorocarbon and I tie the knot in the end of it because it slips out of my hands all the time as I pull up.

on this side of the line face the side of the fluorocarbon wants to face you.

You go over to over and under one side, over and under the next side, and do that 20 times.

This side to this side.

This just keeps switching sides.

Okay.

And on the sun line site, you can see the line, the knot actually in slow motion.

So I have four wraps right there.

five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

I do 23 wraps on that.

So 16 to 20 some low twenties and I'll lay the fluorocarbon parallel to the braid.

Take my tag end, put it over away from the body, over both lines and just cinch it down, cinch it down against my wraps.

Do it a second time.

In the sun line schematic It says five or six cinches, I just do 2.

Okay.

And then I grab my line, I wet it and I'll pull it tight.

I want to set the knot you set it almost to the breaking point and you grab your fluorocarbon end right when it comes out of the wraps and cut it as close as possible.

Take your tag end and go over your braid twice.

It's like that.

I grab my mouth, I pull all three lines, and then I cut my tag end.

I cut it about a eighth to a quarter inch.

It doesn't hurt nothing.

They used to just cut it even.

But there's a little slippage in your not so little tag and gives you a little buffer.

You know, basically it'll slip just so far and that's it.

And it won't bother you.

It'll fray a little bit, but it won't bother the cast any.

How much you're going to go from your connection point, how much you're going to use.

Okay, I'll bring it all the way.

About halfway between the last eye in the spool about right there, that connection point.

Then I'll grab the fluorocarbon, I'll bring it right below my spool, my reel, and I'll cut it.

And she's ready to go.

On many of these line manufacturers, they'll recommend different knots on this one.

It actually says the Albright Knot.

Now, Albright Knot works really well.

One of the things I've noticed about the Albright Knot is that it has a little thicker knot than the FG knot that your tying.

What does that little bit thicker knot do to you?

The thicker the knot the more is going to hit your guides.

By doing this particular knot you get a little less resistance going through there less resistance.

I mean, I have tried all kind of knots.

I've tried the Albright knot, whatever you feel is best for you and you tying you have confidence in is in knots you should use.

This just works for me, period.

Well, let's go catch a fish.

Let's do it.

Oh, here he is.

The second that thing hit the water.

The second you threw out there.

Yeah.

Son of a gun.

You need a net?

No he's little.

White bass.

Now, I'll tell you what.

That thing jumped way out there.

Had to make a real, real long cast.

It's one thing.

Braid's really good for is long cast, I was able to get the cast right to it.

Man it smacked it as soon as it hit.

This fish here is a little small.

We're going to throw this one back in, not quite big enough.

Oh, what do you got there?

A small one.

He's real small.

Is that a... That's a crappie!

You got you a crappie?

Hey.

Yeah, there you go.

I don't believe it was going to be long enough, but you know what?

A pretty little crappie though.

White crappie, can't beat that.

One or two years, right?

Yeah, that's only got about one or two, one or two.

There they are!

They're busting out there.

They're busting.

See em, see em, see em, see em?

Oh, yeah.

They're busting.

There you go.

Oh, there he is.

Got him?

Yeah.

That's a little better than the first one I caught, oh yeah he's better.

He's just coming at me when he's doing that.

Oh yeah, he's a better fish.

You need a net?

I think we will, that's got a lot of trebles in it.

Yeah.

There you go.

Yeah.

There we go, got it.

Nice.

That's a pretty good one there, though.

It's probably 13, 14 inch fish.

Yeah.

Well Bill, I have to say, I've seen you tie this knot several times and I've seen you catch a lot of fish on it.

It works extremely well, I am convinced.

Yeah, Chad it works for me and I hope it works for a lot of other people.

Well, Kentucky's archery season is right around the corner, and that means it's a good time to get out and check your tree stands and make sure that they're still safe and in good condition.

Another good thing to consider is a trail camera.

This is a deer stand that I hunted several times last year and saw several nice bucks and was able to take a couple of does.

It's a little different this year.

This year it's in corn, so I'm not going to be able to come here and scout from a long distance and look over a soybean field.

This will get me up close and personal.

In choosing a good location for this camera, I've taken a couple of things into consideration.

First off, my stand is right there 25 yards away, and I'm right along a very heavily traveled trail.

This trail runs north to south.

I want to place this trail camera in a way that I'm looking down the trail and getting a burst of photos.

I'm going to set this camera up to where I'm going to get three shot bursts every 10 seconds.

Okay.

And I'm going to go somewhere in the neighborhood of about three and a half to four feet off the ground.

And the reason I want to go north to south is because you don't want to get the glare from the sun as the sun travels here east to west.

I'm going to be constantly looking in, in a direction where I should get good video with this camera, good photos.

The other thing I want to consider is placement.

I want a heavily traveled trail with a couple of other benefits around me.

One close to my stand, Two, I've got a food source corn right there in the field.

There's also quite a few nut trees in here.

Secondly, I know that a great bedding area where I've seen deer in the past have been on this ridge side.

Back here, a lot of bedding takes place right in this area.

And there also happens to be a creek with one of the deeper holes that stays wet most of the year.

Since it's not sending me pictures, I'm going to come back and check this camera probably about once every three weeks or so.

I'm not going to come in here and leave a bunch of scent.

The time to come check this trail camera is the time that you wouldn't be hunting.

You don't want to come in here and scare deer out in the good hunting hours in the morning or in the evening.

So let's get this camera here on this tree.

I picked a good tree.

It's nice and wide.

It's going to hide the profile of my camera and I've also made sure that I've got no branches hanging down that can one obstruct the picture.

And two.

These are motion detected cameras.

So if I have a limb hanging down here in a wind blows, it's going to be taking pictures that I don't necessarily want.

This is close to my tree stand with food, bedding area and a water source.

All right.

Here.

I think this camera is going to potentially get a photo of a deer that I may pursue all season long.

To be successful in a river system.

Sometimes you got to be willing to go the extra mile to access the productive waters.

Hard on your bones out here.

This rock, which is probably been here a couple million years, it's not real easy on the wrist and ankles and butt when you fall.

Tell you what, Bob.

Summertime at the falls of the Ohio this is kind of a sight to see and the opportunity to catch fish here is pretty crazy.

You really got to take whatever bites, right?

I think so.

So what do you think the potential is today?

What type of fish?

I think we could get on the stripers or the hybrid stripers and hopefully we get into some blue cats today too.

Drum, carp, gar.

Those are all possibilities as well.

Right?

Maybe even see a sturgeon or spoonbill swimming around.

It's crazy.

You know, there's so many different fish that are moving up here this time of year.

Everything's hot.

There's not a lot of flow, but yet you've got oxygenated cooler water coming through.

So if we can find us a good pocket we may just smash them.

You ready Chad?

Yep.

I'm just going to walk straight out in here and see how slippery it really is today.

We've already seen a couple of fish I'd like to catch.

What are you going to start off with today?

I think that's always a good bet running a swimbait and seeing what bites, because even the catfish will strike on the swimbaits.

That sounds good.

I got two tied on, so I'm ready for that.

Well, I'll leave this jacket and keep my fanny pack jacket on.

Just grab what we need.

We can always come back if we forget something.

Sounds good.

Yeah, we're pretty close.

So, which are you, like, fish up here?

Well, I like to find the groups of Asian carp, and then wherever the Asian carp are stacked up, kind of looking into the rapid.

A lot of times the predator fish are underneath of them.

Okay, so we're literally trying to focus find these carp.

Yeah.

They're pretty easy to pick out with that big dorsal fin.

Have you ever fished with parts and pieces of these Asian carp?

I have a lot of luck using the swim bladders.

You know, a buddy of mine showed me that trick years ago.

He took a swim bladder out of one.

It's like fish with the squid.

That was phenomenal Catfish bait.

If we want to make some cut bait for a big catfish, we can go for that route.

Yeah.

Can't go wrong.

All right, let's.

Let's get out there and catch a fish.

Here we go.

I don't know what this is, but it's, it's strong.

Oh, it's.

It looks like a big drum or something?

Wow.

Look at that.

Has this thing got drag on it?

I need to let the drag out.

Oh, not that much.

He wasn't going anywhere.

That's a catfish, I think.

Oh, no.

That was a catfish.

Oh, no.

Down he goes.

Here we go.

Oh, what have we got here?

Gummy bears.

Now, look at that.

That's an Asian carp hooked right in the mouth.

Now, it looks like that fish intentionally tried to eat that bait.

I'm not saying that he didn't, but these are filter feeders and really don't have a stomach system that is suited to eat a bait fish like that.

I don't want to release this anyway.

These are an invasive species.

You mind taking the bladder out of that?

Not at all.

You sure?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

We can get that out.

We'll get one catfish line out here in a minute.

All right.

That sounds good.

Sweet.

Thank you.

Oh, that is why I let him do the walking.

He's got those felt-bottom shoes on.

Oh, that was about bad.

There'll be more of those to come.

I promise you.

I got a Carolina rigged one ounce sinker here, with a bead to kind of protect my knot down here above my swivel.

Couple feet of about 25 pound test, just like a circle hook style.

I'm going to run this swim bladder came out of the Asian carp we caught a few minutes ago.

They really hook up well and they don't come off.

Hopefully we get a few good fish out of this.

What was that?

I think it's a carp.

Oh I still got him.

Looks like air bladders are cheap today.

Look at that.

That's a crazy how the there's just that many of them out there and we're hooking them in the mouth.

Oh, it snapped my line.

He break you?

Yeah, I had a good bite, actually.

I don't know why the line broke.

Here we go.

We have got here?

Oh, you see that thing jumping?

Make it real appealing, you know?

If I was a big catfish I would eat that.

You would eat that?

If I was a big catfish.

Here we go.

It's a buffalo, isn't it?

Got us a buffalo on this one.

Everything up in there.

Oh, gosh.

About took you downstream.

Oh, that's a big fish.

Come on fishing pole.

Look at the asian carp jumping away from it.

Oh man, that's a good one.

Oh, this is going to be something to see if I get this fish in.

Oh, my gosh.

This is way out there in that current.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh, my goodness.

It looks like a stand off.

I swear, if you can't come down here and enjoy this, you just don't like fishing.

We just got to hope he wants to come this way because this is about a 25 pounder, and he's out there in that current.

A little further, Bob's going to need his Missouri fishing license.

It probably won't be up to me.

The fish got to want to swim this way to catch him.

Or I may get spooled right here.

Oh, just broke.

Well my line snapped.

Oh, my goodness.

What have I got?

That's why I went and got the big rod.

When I saw you hooked up, I said, I better get a big stick.

I ain't going to be able to handle a fish like that on that other rod.

She hit hard.

She ran straight for the current.

Took me downstream with her.

That's nice, it's hard to beat.

Chad had one hit about like this a second ago.

I got a freshwater shark.

Oh my Chad, that's a big one.

I think 15 pounds or better.

Lord have mercy.

You want to have some excitement.

You come out here and get it moving current and you hook one of those on the moving lure.

You are in for a treat.

Thank goodness that fish didn't hit on the other rig I had because I would have had a heck of a ride.

I brought the big stick out.

Got hooked.

That's a beautiful fish.

Got us a long nose gar.

That's blue catfish, drum, gar, Asian carp and a buffalo.

I gotta get some more gummy bears.

A mouthful of gummy bears, keep you going.

Look at all of them.

Half going down half coming back up.

They don't know where they want to be.

Every cast I'm getting a bite and it's just like a just like playing roulette.

Okay.

What kind of fish is going to be?

That one is a drum.

Oh, that's a good one.

That is a good one.

A pretty fish, too, though.

This is absolutely crazy how many catfish we're catching out of extremely shallow water.

I can see these Asian carp fins in there, and these catfish are just sitting right below them two and three feet deep.

They're just so incredibly strong and fun to catch.

I don't know how many we've caught today.

We thought we might catch some hybrids.

That didn't happen, but the water depth was absolutely perfect to catch a boatload of these blue catfish.

And we've caught them all, almost all on swim baits and bladders out of these Asian carp.

What a pretty fish.

Well, Bob, I tell you what, this was an absolute blast.

I appreciate you bringing me up.

And I want to know, how did you stay dry?

I'm not sure.

I think just the preparation.

Expecting to be wet kept me dry today.

Bob, I say we pick up our rods and reels and gear.

We got about a 200 yard hike.

Hopefully we stay upright and get back in the canoe and head out.

What do you think?

That sounds like a good plan.

Well worth a trip.

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

Here we have Warner from Paducah, Kentucky, with his first fish that he caught in a small family pond in Salem.

Nice job.

Here we have a really nice bluegill that was caught by Ella Newton.

This fish was caught at a farm pond in Grayson County while fishing with her dad.

Nice job.

Here we have Rhino Driscoll with a nice bluegill that was caught in his uncle's farm pond in Boone County, Kentucky.

Congratulations.

Looks like the Cox family had a successful day fishing on Elk Lake in Owen County.

Nice job.

Our Kentucky hunting seasons are right around the corner.

For more information about specific season dates or for the rules and regulations, go to FW.KY.GOV, or pick up a copy of the Hunting Guide.

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.