This week on Kentucky Afield, Muskie are the freshwater apex predator of North America and Kentucky has plenty of them, but their population does require some help from the department.

We'll show you where they come from.

Next, we're taking to the woods and getting excited for the early muzzleloader season.

Then, we're on the Ohio River and taking advantage of a great fall bite.

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.

If you've ever caught a muskie here in the state of Kentucky, chances are that fish was raised in one of our fish hatcheries.

Now, let's take a look at exactly how that process works.

I'm here today with Mike Hardin.

Mike, I know you've been with the Fisheries Division for a long time and you're currently program manager and assistant director.

But Lifetime Muskie Fishermen.

Lifetime.

I grew up- first place I ever swam was at a riffle at the mouth of Warix Run Creek.

Oh, yeah.

And of course, that's impounded by Cave Run Now.

And it's also a good muskie place.

We recently just spent some time at Minor Clark Fish Hatchery, which is pretty important for the Muskie population here in Kentucky.

Clark Hatchery is the only hatchery.

We've got two hatcheries and that's the only one that grows Muskie.

So actually trying to reintroduce Muskie into our waters and in greater numbers kind of started very close to Cave Run Lake how many years ago?

That's a little interesting.

It's 1973, so that puts it at about 50 years this year.

Okay.

So, you know, we ought to commemorate that and go muskie fishing.

I couldn't agree more.

I think I caught my first muskie with you in the boat at Cave Run Lake.

Yes.

That is awesome.

That time of year is not that far away, it█d be time to go try it again.

Here at the end of summer, when we start seeing some cool nights, it'll be time to get out the buck tails and go give them a shot.

So tell me a little bit about what the department does in the process of raising Muskie to be released back into our Kentucky streams and lakes.

We get fish from the local waters, usually out of the tail waters or the lake, and we bring them to the hatchery.

And of course, then we go through the the hatchery protocol to induce spawning.

We're located just below Cave Run Lake here, so we have easy access to the brood fish and we're able to maintain brood stock on site as well.

The females are spawned into a dish pan.

Once we collect the eggs from the females, we'll have a separate crew that are collecting the milt from the males.

Milt is added a a couple different stages during the fertilization process.

Once egg collection is complete for that female we█ll add water that's stirred in for about 2 minutes to ensure that the eggs are fertilized.

Once it's been 2 minutes, we█ll rinse the eggs off with water three times and then we'll add diatomaceous earth stirred into the eggs that is allowed to sit on the eggs for about a minute.

And then where we█ll rinse three times.

Then the eggs are set aside to allow to water harden for about 3 hours after they water harden for 3 hours, we will take the eggs.

We will actually use a disinfectant called ova dine.

The eggs are disinfected and in a disinfectant bath for about 10 minutes and then the eggs are split into different hatching jars and placed onto the hatching battery.

They'll stay on the hatching battery for about 11 to 14 days until they're ready to be pan hatched.

After we pan hatch the eggs, they're placed into trays inside our tanks here.

They will swim out of those trays in 5 to 7 days and they'll go down into the spawn text material in the tanks.

After about 11 to 14 days, they'll swim out of that material and go through what's called swim up, and they'll swim up to the surface.

At that point, we█ll take those fry and we'll stock them into 7 to 9 one acre ponds down here on the hatchery.

After we put them in the ponds, we don't stock fry or like we do some of the other fish.

We grow these out and so we feed them, give them a lot of great care because we're, you know, we want to make sure that we have the most success when we put them in the water so we grow them out with feeding them minnows or goldfish.

And then at the end of the summer, we have two different stocking categories.

We'll stock our streams with nine inch fish, but for our four lakes, Cave Run, Green River, Buckhorn and Dewey like we grow them out to a little bit longer.

You see those in around the 12 inch range and that gives them a good chance of success.

Each year You know, we try to raise 11, 12,000 fish there at that hatchery.

And then, of course, those get distributed across the state.

So it's very important and it's critical to the Muskie.

Interestingly, one of the best streams in those early surveys for Muskie, you know, back in the late sixties and seventies, one of the best streams was the North Fork and Licking River, which now, of course, is the headwaters of Cave Run.

Yeah, well, I say what I know you love.

I know you love the Muskie.

Every time we start talking Muskie, you get that grin and that giggle and you're like, I know you love fishing for them and you know what?

If you've ever had success catching a muskie, how could you not?

I mean, it is literally the apex predator or the wolf of the water.

And I'm very proud of the work that's being done right there at Minor Clark.

Yeah, the work that's being done now and really the foundational work that some of our early biologists here at the Kentucky Department Fish and Wildlife did.

You'll see their work cited in many of the other state█s Muskie programs as well.

Well, thank you so much for spending your time with us today.

And next time it'll be instead of standing by water, we'll be on the water.

In six weeks.

In six weeks, let█s hit it.

Located in eastern Franklin County, Elkhorn Creek flows 19 miles from the convergence of the North Fork and the South Fork to the Kentucky River.

With roughly ten access sites It's easy to get on the water, and canoe and kayak rentals are available.

The stream offers excellent fishing opportunities for smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, spotted bass and a variety of other species, including drum, catfish, and various sunfish.

To locate access sites in Kentucky visit the “Find a Place to Fish” page on the department website, or download the “Fish Boat KY” App.

You'll be able to search for your favorite waterbodies and get directions to all public access sites and fishing locations.

Be sure to check the fishing and boating guide for rules and regulations that pertain to Elkhorn Creek, as they may differ from other bodies of water.

For more information about Elkhorn Creek, or any other body of water in Kentucky, visit our website at FW.KY.GOV.

Here in Kentucky, the first chance to hit the woods with a gun for deer season is next weekend for early muzzle loader season.

That's October 21st and 22nd.

And I hope you're ready.

Well i█m out here for the afternoon hunt for the opening day of the early muzzleloader season.

We've been seeing a lot of deer.

Was able to move a stand and get set up down in a corner of this field where the deer have been using it a ton.

There's bedding areas on both sides.

Got in here this morning, got set up and ended up seeing quite a few deer, had many deer in range, but I didn't see that buck that I've been waiting for.

I did see a pretty good buck right in that area where I placed this stand.

But I was bow hunting and I was three or 400 yards away.

Now I'm right in the zone.

Today I hunted until 11:00 this morning and I had does in range literally when I got down out of the stand.

I didn't want to shoot a doe in this bedding area because the area where they're going in there, I don't want to go in there to get a doe out.

Now, if I get in there this afternoon and a doe comes out early and gives me a chance to get a shot out in the field, I'll probably take that shot and then go back and buck hunt until dark.

I know the bucks are in there, but a shot early in the hunt I don't think will mess with that too much.

You know, I did have a coyote come through this morning.

I thought about trying to get a shot at that coyote but I really didn't want the smell of that coyote right there laying by my stand the whole time.

So pretty cool seeing.

I've been seeing tons of wildlife out of this location.

It's a pretty easy walk in, but I got to go through a little bedding area to get there.

I got to slip through real quiet, get up in this field edge and literally with a muzzle loader.

I am about 180 yards to the property boundary.

It's a pretty big open area for a muzzleloader hunt.

It's absolutely perfect.

I haven't muzzleloader hunted last few seasons, I haven't been taking advantage of it.

And I'm excited to be out here today.

Well we're up here ready to start this hunt.

I tell you what, I'm about as confident in today's hunt as I have ever been.

Just because of how many times I've hunted the other end of this field, four hundred yards away.

I've never hunted down there without seeing deer right here.

So hopefully get one out here early, get a shot, take it doe and buck hunt the rest of the way out.

That would be ideal.

Oh deer right over here to the left, 40 yards.

Look like there█s four.

Here they come.

This doe in the front she looks to be probably the biggest one.

Okay here she comes she█s going to move to our left.

I was surprised to see that deer run off, but a big smoke cloud came up.

I really don't know what happened.

Hopefully we've got dinner on the ground, so now we can just hunt for some antlers.

I'll tell you what, this buck hunt is about over.

We got a few minutes of daylight left, and I got to unload this gun.

I can't hunt tomorrow.

If I get a chance to take this big doe here I'll probably take it.

If I█m going to process one, might as well process two.

Well, I tell you what, usually we eat about four or five deer a year.

This puts me in a good situation where I know from here on out I'm buck hunting and buck hunting only.

Hopefully get to use that buck tag, but this was a great opportunity to do that today.

Just didn█t show up.

I ran out of light.

Well found my two does.

They actually ran on the same trail within 20 yards of each other, so I pulled them together here.

My trophy buck never showed up.

We did see a couple of small bucks, nothing that I was that interested in.

And I was sitting there thinking, You know what?

I can't hunt tomorrow.

Muzzleloader season is only two days.

I thought, you know what this is a great opportunity for me to unload my muzzleloader, go ahead and fill the freezer, top it off.

And now I can focus the rest of the season on some antlers.

Fall brings some unique fishing opportunities that may not be available during the dog days of summer, like hybrid fishing.

We're out here today in western Louisville, right on the banks of the Ohio River at a brand new boat ramp.

Interestingly enough, I have Michael Scott here, who is the director of engineering information and several other things right here.

This is one of the projects that you guys worked on.

This is a brand new boat ramp right here in western Louisville.

Yeah.

It█s one of our engineering projects.

And so I am the division director of the Engineering Infrastructure and Technology Division for the Department.

This project started a long time ago, but actual construction was started back in spring of 2020 and we started the earthwork and all the construction concrete work to get this boat ramp in place.

And then it was a partnership with the city of Louisville.

They came in behind us and we built the boat ramp portion.

They built the parking lot portion, and they finished that up in the spring of 2021.

This is a really interesting project because, you know, the Ohio River offers so much opportunity.

There you go.

Oh, she just barely hooked too.

Got a double.

Haven't been here 20 minutes.

Ohio River Catfish at it█s finest right there.

But you█ve got to be all access water, right?

This is right below the falls and it's on a stretch where In Kentucky I don't know how far down you got to go to get to the next boat ramp.

Kentucky side, there's not another boat ramp for a long ways.

And this is excellent access for our largest population city.

And so it's this perfect fit to get the people on the water that's close to them.

We're going to launch the boat here and we're going to make our way up.

You know, it's early October it█s a good time of year to catch hybrid bass.

Yeah.

Now it takes special precautions.

We're going to be, life-jacketed up from the time we leave.

I'll tell you what.

If you're going to come down here and do this, first couple of times, you probably need to come with somebody's got a lot of experience.

This is going to be fun.

We're going to fish to hopefully right up about dark and you know I know they█ve been catching some big fish.

Sounds good.

Looking forward to it.

That's what we're going to catch fish.

I got one.

You got him?

Does it feel like a good one?

It looks like a good one.

That didn█t take long.

Yeah.

There he is.

Perfect.

That█s why you get the net under them.

That was, that was awesome.

I'll tell you what, we just got up here, made a couple of casts.

You caught that one.

I've been bumped a time or two.

Look at that.

What a beautiful fish.

That's awesome.

Probably 5 minutes or so.

You're just throwing a, just a fluke?

Yeah.

And just a normal zoom fluke.

Nothing special.

Four inch fluke.

And right up there.

Now, listen, this is not something for the faint of heart.

This is a situation where you've got to have jackets on.

You don't know the river and know exactly what you're doing.

You could really get hurt.

Yeah.

And I tell you what, this is a healthy fish.

If you were out on the lake for a hybrid, you go,” This is a pretty good fish.” Man, I'll tell you what.

This is probably what do you think, Four pounder?

Yeah.

They get really, really big down here.

You wouldn't surprise me one bit if we don't catch a six, eight, nine, ten pounder.

Very possible.

Well, nice job, Michael.

Awesome.

Oh, here we go.

Oh man, you add one: how hard these things fight.

And then you add this current.

you got it.

Looks like a brother or sister to exactly what you caught.

Yeah.

A little smaller.

Man, I tell you what though There is absolutely very few things more exciting than a hybrid bass in heavy current, catching one of those.

I don't know if it█s true or not but I've heard they're one of the hardest fighting fish.

Pound for pound in Freshwater.

Oh, I don't doubt it.

And I'm throwing a little fluke.

Almost the same thing with a little green on the end.

We went with the bedazzled head because that's all they had.

I really don't think in this current it really matters.

As long as they like it, I like it.

They seem to be liking it right now.

Oh, I saw that.

I got him.

You got him up here in The Current.

I saw your line bounce.

I can█t tell what I got.

He█s swimming towards me maybe.

Doesn't feel too big, but- Oh, that's a good one.

That's a good one.

It is just swimming towards me.

Oh, got it.

Got him And he's not happy about it.

What a joy.

How much fun is this?

It's a blast.

Hard to beat.

It is hard to beat.

Now, it takes a little work.

It comes with some inherent risk.

It takes some education.

And, you know, what you can't see is that this trolling motor is not able to hold us in this place.

We literally have a boat jockey driving us to keep us in the right position.

Hey, nice fish.

Thanks.

Let█s catch some more.

So, Michael, obviously boat ramps are a big part of what your engineering department does, but what other projects do you guys work on that sportsmen and women as they travel the state may not realize that the Fish and Wildlife has an engineering department that is responsible for that.

Yeah, there's a wide variety of projects that we cover and oversee.

A lot of the shooting ranges we have on our WMA█s were constructed by our engineering division over the years and we maintain those and keep those up and doing any renovations, repairs we need to those.

I mean, just simple parking lots.

So we've recently built a new parking lot on Palmer Road Access at Taylorsville Lake WMA for spring time white bass run.

And it's just a lot of variety of things that we find ourselves getting into.

And some of it is behind the scenes that you might not think of us being involved with, that our division is the technology side of it, and that's if you go online, buy your hunting fishing license, you're using a program that was developed in-house by our IT staff to purchase that license.

So they've got, I think, 90 plus systems, some of them public facing, some of them just support the mission of the department.

So if you hunt and fish in the state of Kentucky, you're in some form or fashion, you're interacting with the engineering department, with the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Somehow.

Yeah, the simple aspect of buying a license or tele-checking an animal or launching a boat, all that.

You guys are involved in some form.

Oh!

you got it?

Yup.

All right.

I think he wanted my rod.

Oh, yeah.

There we go.

They all look like they're the exact same year.

Yeah, it's a little smaller here too, but man, I'll tell you one thing.

They hit there in that current and they take off It's just “Hold on.” Just a beautiful fish.

I got one right there on the wall.

Oh, yeah.

Nice.

You were right on the wall, huh?

That's right where I just got hit too literally like- I thought I was hung up I was so close.

I got the net ready whenever you get it in.

Oh, he's running now.

Coming up.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

A little bit bigger.

Yeah, definitely bigger.

Here you go, man.

That's a good one.

Nice.

I tell you what, you take a fish that powerful, you think about all the bait that's coming through there and it's all distressed and disoriented.

That fish is strong enough to go right where it wants and chase it right up against that wall.

You literally caught that how close the wall?

Right on that wall, maybe two feet from it.

Two feet?

Yeah.

So you gave it a nice, easy piece of bait, nice prey, and then took advantage.

Sure did.

Great fish, man.

Thanks.

Surf fishing.

Oh, here we go.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

There we go.

Still a pretty good fish.

Man, they are so aggressive.

Look at that.

What a beautiful, beautiful fish.

I'll tell you what, Mike.

Think about this fish started in a fish hatchery.

Yeah.

Because these hybrids, they don't reproduce naturally.

It's pretty cool.

Yeah, definitely fun to get out here and put one of our projects to use and definitely hope to make it back out sometime.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, I really appreciate you coming out today.

All right.

I enjoyed it.

Absolute blast.

Let's get this fish back in.

Now let's check in and see who else has been out having fun in this week's Ones That Didn't Get away.

Check out 15 year old Breanna Griffin from Warsaw, Kentucky.

She took this nice five by five bull on the opening day of the bull firearm season in Bell County.

She shot at it only 17 yards with her dad█s seven millimeter.

Nice job.

Check out the size of this catfish caught by Mila and Brooks Hitchell.

They were running a trot line in their grandparents lake in Cromwell, Kentucky.

Nice job.

Here we have Landon Adkins with two nice spotted bass from Lake Cumberland.

He caught these while pre-fishing for a high school bass fishing tournament.

Nice job.

Check out this nice nine point buck that was taken by Jake Hall in Carter County.

This deer was taken on the opening day of crossbow season.

Haley Mattingly found a little time to do some fishing at her family reunion in Grayson County.

Nice bass.

Here we have Stella Sanders with a nice bass that she caught while fishing at her uncle's farm pond in Caneyville, Kentucky.

Nice job.

Check out the size of this crappie caught by Matthew Gibson on Kentucky Lake.

This fish weighed 3lb.

Nice job.

Here we have Missy Metcalf of Breckinridge County with their first double while trapping coyotes in the 2022-23 season.

Nice job.

Check out the size of this bluegill caught by John Henson.

This fish was caught at a family farm pond in Harrison County.

Nice job.

Here we have Ben Maynard, who's showing us that the Muskie at Dewey Lake are getting big.

This fish was caught and released.

Nice job.

I hope your muzzleloader is sighted in and ready to go because the hunting season opens up this weekend, October 21st and 22nd.

And remember, hunting a 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'll see you in the woods or on the water.

Hello, I'm Chad Miles.

Did you know that when you buy a fishing license, it does more than provide summertime fun.

That's nice.

It produces millions of fish that are stocked in our waterways.

It constructs new opportunities for boat ramps and public access.

It provides new, sustainable habitats for our native fish.

It creates quality fishing opportunities close to home.

It helps protect our home waters.

And it makes for a better, more beautiful bluegrass for all that live here.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources it█s more than just a fishing license.