This week on Kentucky Afield.

Warm weather has arrived So we're doing one of our favorite warm weather activities.

Float fishing for small mouth Next we're learning how to target one of the strongest and most overlooked species of fish in our waterways.

The carp Then warm weather isn't just good for the creeks.

It's good for ponds, too.

And frog legs.

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.

Hey, if you like to kayak fish, you probably know you can fish from a kayak year round, but the stream fishing really starts to heat up.

In May, Well, spring is here.

May is here.

Turkey season is finally wrapped up.

It's time to go fishing.

And I am really excited about today's float.

I'm here on the Elkhorn Creek, and this is a section I have never fish before.

It is literally the last two miles before it enters into the Kentucky River.

I'm going to start here at the 127 bridge and I'm going to float this area down, hopefully catching a bunch of fish.

A couple of things to remember before you go kayak fishing, which is an absolute blast, is some of the safety precautions You know, sun's out today.

I'm a sunscreen on.

Always make sure you bring your life jacket, wear your life jacket at all times.

Also, I've let people know that I intend to start right here at the 127 bridge and I'm taking out at the Strohmeier facility.

So for whatever reason, if I'm gone longer than I'm supposed to be gone.

My family, my friends, they know where I'm at and where I'm supposed to be.

I'm hoping to get on some fish today.

You know, Elkhorn Creek is legendary for small mouth bass.

So if you ever come to Elkhorn Creek, you got to hope that you catch some smallmouth bass.

So hopefully there's some fish that are moved out of the river and are up here and ready to bite.

The water flow looks great.

Water temperatures getting up in the mid seventies throughout the day, looking at about 250.

CFS today should be a lot of fun.

Here we go.

Well, here we go.

My first stream, small mouth of the year.

Hey, he ain't much.

He's a little bitty, bitty bitty fish.

But hopefully there'll be many more.

And hopefully they get a lot bigger.

What have we got here?

Oh, we got a little, another little guy here.

This is your typical little eight to ten inch little smallmouth.

This creek is plumb full of these things.

But they do get bigger.

And there are 18, 19 inch fish are in this creek.

So, you know, you come here plan on dealing with a bunch this size.

But every now and then you catch a trophy fish.

They're here Well, this water is crystal clear isn't it?

here we go.

Man.

I'll tell you what.

Coming through this area, you can see where it's all riffles in and of large volume of water flowing down through here.

And then, of course, I didn't know what was coming up because I never floated this before.

It just drops off into a hole where I can't tell how deep it is, but hey you see a spot that perfect.

You know, it holds some smallies.

Here we go.

Oh, that was a good one there.

That was about a two and a half pounder Here we go.

Look here.

This is interesting, about the same size fish have been catching.

But this here is actually a Kentucky spotted bass.

So they're built about the same.

Look, about the same.

But you can catch all three black bass species we have here in the state of Kentucky, right here out of Elkhorn Creek.

Here we go.

Oh, my goodness.

Now, that is not what I was expecting to catch right here at the take out.

I'll tell you what, this has been a great float and right here, no cover.

Literally making a last couple cast.

I get a bite and it's a really nice black crappie.

Interesting about this crappie is if you look, check out that black stripe right up.

It's back all the way through here.

This is referred to as a black nose crappie.

I have caught a couple before, but they're pretty rare.

A lot of times what I've caught them is have been out of ponds where they've been stocked and they literally stock this species of fish.

But check out that nose.

It's so incredibly defined.

Man, this has been a great float.

I'll tell you what, it's only about two miles.

It's a great place to catch some fish.

I would say that the first half of this float is not exactly easy.

It's a lot of current, a lot of moving.

It's hard to fish from a kayak, but the last bit of it is nice and easy.

A lot of timber almost like you're fishing out of a bass boat.

And then the cool thing is, is right at the take out, two hundred yards further.

You got the Kentucky River.

I've had a great time out here.

And hey if you have not tried kayak fishing, You got to give it a shot.

Worldwide carp are some of the most pursued fish by rod and reel.

But for whatever reason, here in the United States, they're overlooked This right here is a pack bait.

I make it out of breadcrumbs, strawberry jello.

I got some flour.

I have a couple of eggs In there.

A can of sweet corn and a can of hominy for a little bit of extra flavor, but it usually packs together pretty good.

Make it into a dough ball, and I'll put it on my method lead and it will act as a chum.

It'll stick on there pretty good.

They have different rigs set up for it, but I use a slip sinker.

That way he can pull or he can do what he needs to do before he feels the hook.

This is strictly a chumming method right here.

That's the way to try to draw the fish in.

And then they're going to hit this, which is a little rubber pieces of fake corn.

Yes, sir.

And a little bitty hook.

Yes, they'll inhale the hook.

And if all goes well, they won't feel the hook at all.

Most of the time, it'll catch them right in the lip when they inhale it.

So now you've got this Rod Holder set up.

It's a two piece style rod holder and then this thing here is actually battery powered.

Yes.

And you have run your line down in there and you've got this set where your drag is almost completely open he pulls the line, it feeds through, gets tight catches right here.

Then it has to go up and over a roller, which will set off your alarm.

Set off your alarm.

So let you know exactly when you're getting a bite.

Yes.

So today we're here in Hodgenvill, and I am learning about something completely new to me, and that is carp fishing.

I've been fishing my entire life and today I have seen more gear and more equipment dedicated to carp fishing than I ever thought was even possible.

All this stuff to me is a complete new world.

And it's a world that I have a lot of interest in because, you know, I fish around the state of Kentucky.

I always see carp.

That's one of the things that I think that carp are in almost every single body of water.

Today, let's hope we catch a fish or two.

And I've already learned a ton on how to target and catch carp oh, there we go.

It hooked up.

Yep.

All right.

You know, there's something so cool about targeting a specific fish and catching the fish you're targeting.

Coming back out now.

Got up on the bank, now it's running back out.

Look at that thing.

Oh, did it come off right there?

Hey, well, you know what?

That's encouraging.

We had a fish this close to the bank.

That was probably my error.

Well, it happens.

It does.

Take a couple of pieces of corn, just pop your holes and call stack and the corn up, and you can see it better without the corn on there itself.

I got a long hair and kind of loops out like that off your knotless knot.

Oh, I gotcha.

OK, and you take it and slide them on, slide them on hooks and they got these fancy little bait stops that just keeps your corn from flying off, huh?

Supposed to keep the fish from stealing it, too, but apparently he was wanting it more than me.

Oh, that's a screamer.

Hooked up?

Yep.

I'd say this one's a carp because he's just purely running.

OK, man they are getting right up here on the bank.

Look at that.

Look how fast that fish is.

A lot of people consider carp, trash fish.

You don't think of them as being real athletic, pretty athletic fish, aren't they?

They're relentless.

Oh, OK.

There we go.

We got it in there.

Now, this is it looks like just a regular common carp, is that correct?

Yes, sir.

So you said you have caught Mirrored Carp out of here.

Yes.

Explain to me what a mirrored carp looks like.

They'll have bigger scales and a wider pattern.

They're more colorful fish.

OK, well, this is probably, what, about a four or five pound fish, or something like that?

Yes.

There you go.

It is a pretty fish and extremely hard fighters for anyone wanting to catch a fish that will pull your line, scream it, put it to its limits.

There's nothing out there better than a carp.

And like I said, they're just so, so plentiful.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

That fish was released very healthy.

Hopefully one of these days is on the end of your rod again.

Hopefully I can see him when he hits 20, 25 pounds.

There you go.

That thing just keeps on going.

How many days a week you fish for carp?

The only thing I don't fish in is the lightning.

Yes, I got a little waterproof canopy I set up.

Hooked up?

Yeah.

Here you go.

Oh, a little bigger fish.

Catfish?

No.

A little bigger carp.

This one's about three times the size of the last one I believe.

Am I going about this different than you normally would?

Oh, sorry.

It works.

There you go.

So, again, it's another common carp.

Yep.

Man, that thing put up a good fight, huh?

Yes, he did.

And he's still got a lot of energy left in reserve.

Oh, yeah?

I'll tell you what I know now why when that thing went beep, beep and stopped, you didn't get all excited, because when they decide to eat, they usually just go go.

There was no playing around.

It's just gone.

This table, you've got this fish in.

This is strictly for what you're doing right now.

It's for actually putting the fish in and handling and handling the fish so you don't hurt them.

Yep.

A lot of people will get the hook out before you get them out of the water.

Yeah, I bring them over here that way.

If he does flop around, he's not thrashing on the bank.

So you can see what they're doing.

They're just kind of sucking and picking up whatever's on the bottom bugs, bugs, worms, mussels.

And they do have really, really, really soft lips.

I mean, they're extremely soft lip.

And we're going to get this one back in the water.

So, people talk about bass fisherman.

They may say, Hey, if I ever get a chance, you know, I want to go to St. Clair, smallmouth fish.

Or if you're a large mouth fisherman, it might be Okeechobee.

Where is your destination location, Anywhere in the world, To go do what you're doing right here?

I'd go back to Dale Hollow easily.

That's the crazy thing.

So people worldwide they start thinking about their destination location, any place to go to carp fish.

It could be right here in Kentucky.

Yeah.

And in the group I'm in the carp group.

That's the number one destination spot.

Everyone says, I want to go to Dale Hollow.

I'm going to Dale Hollow.

I'm planning a trip to Dale Hollow.

What do I need?

What do I do?

You know, that is the spot down there.

It's.

It's not uncommon to catch 30, 40, 50 pound carp.

Oh, yeah.

It's got the bait runner.

You flip it down.

All right, coming toward us.

Man, I tell you one thing, Carp are fast.

Something so sluggish when you look at him in video can have that energy to just burst out of the pocket like a hole shot in the bass tournament.

When I see a carp, they're usually sitting there one spot.

But when you get them hooked, man, they go.

They do reminded me of a striper taking off.

oh, my gosh.

They're much faster than I thought.

It just kind of blows me away.

I'm just letting that rod just keep tention enough to keep it buried.

You know, when you start thinking about carp fishing, and I will tell you this the first time I've ever targeted carp, but I'll tell you, you don't think about the skill that's going to be required to land a fish this strong on such a little hook.

This is this is something that takes a lot of technique and quite a bit of fishing skill.

I believe he's in there.

And easily the biggest one of the day.

I'll tell you what.

Nice job, Chad.

Nice job.

Oh, thank you.

I will tell you this.

This is this is definitely the very, very, very first time I've caught a carp while targeting carp.

Now look at the size of the tail.

Now, this is where fish get their strength.

Of course, they got to have the mass here to be able to whip that tail.

But look how much water that tail can push.

Quite a bit.

Very powerful fish.

It is.

What a pretty fish.

Look at the belly on it.

I'll tell you.

Well, that was a lot of fun.

Let's get her back in.

What do you think?

Absolutely.

There you go.

Feel like a good fish?

He feels like a nice one.

Probably not as monstrous as yours.

Well, just complete, pure luck.

I'll tell you what, if you ever thought, you know what?

There's nothing biting in the summer.

Hard to fish right now.

And you got a pond you know has some carp, get you a couple of these little hooks, get you the longest spinning rod you have around, and give this a try because I'll tell you, this will test you because it does take a certain level of skill to be able to bring in a fish this powerful with a very, very, very small hook and such a soft mouth.

With the warm weather we've been having recently, I've been hearing some bullfrogs, and their timing is perfect because the season opens up this Friday, May 20th.

So it's been about a month ago now I'm searching the Internet and I see these crazy girls who like to go out and grab frogs by hand.

Crazy.

So here we are, frog gigging season is in, and we got a really warm night in Montgomery County.

And what are we getting ready to do?

Gig some frogs and go grab some frogs?

We're going to gig frogs shoot them with a bow and arrow, grab them, whatever it takes.

This pond is not been gig, grabbed none of that for a while, has been a few years.

Frog gigging runs from third Friday in May.

All the way up to October 31st.

We're kind of in the middle of it.

You really want to hit the ponds first, before everybody gets out and gets on them.

Or if any kind of livestock is out they're not so good, they eat it down and they get skittish and they run off.

yeah, so it's something nice to do every nice weekend night that I can get out and it's been a while so I'm excited to be out here getting ready to do this.

You girls, we took a little sneak peek.

There are a lot of frogs up here.

There's a few.

I'm really excited.

So our limit, how many is it?

15 per person.

We all have hunting and fishing license, but if we were going to get them by a gun or a bow you got to have a?

Hunting license.

If you're going to get them by Rod and Reel?

Fishing.

And if you're going to grab them or gig them, you can have either.

Ideal conditions you want hot, humid, and you want nights that it stays in the high sixties or seventies?

right.

That's what we're going to get tonight.

Should be good.

All right.

Well, let's get our gear loaded up and get ready to go get them.

Let's go.

all right.

Well, we're right at the bank right now.

The pond just about 40 feet away.

I think rather than carrying all this, let's set the bows down.

Make a home base right there.

We'll make a home base and then we'll go around once, give them a little bit of time.

If we pushed them out in the middle, we'll come back and shoot at them.

that works.

I love shooting at them, that would be a lot of fun.

It's fun.

Don't Move.

Get one?

Cool.

I didn't even see that one.

Nice, nice job.

There you go.

Nice.

I see you both already have frogs here.

We're going to throw him back.

Yeah, they're too small, but they're fun to get fun to catch.

He's fiesty too.

So these little jokers in about a year or two, you're going to be big in nice big fat ones.

They're giving you kisses.

Give me good ones.

So I tell you what though, the first one we saw when we walked up here.

He's a big one.

We wouldn't be throwing that one back.

We wouldn't throw that one back.

But these are little fellas.

There's one.

You have to gig him.

Do you need me to get it?

No, I need you to make sure I don't go swimming.

Nice shot Reesha.

You've got that thing pinned.

you might need a little assistance.

There we go.

Hang on.

I didn't lose the frog.

You didn't.

You did not lose the frog.

Get him.

I got him.

I'm about to break your gig for real.

Please be on there.

Oh, hey, he went way down.

Some people go to really expensive spas to get the mud bath like this.

Well, he got off.

He was on there, though.

He was.

Jess What do you do with this one?

Turn him loose.

Yeah, they're catching plenty by hand, that's for sure.

So we're going to give this one here.

That didn't work out.

I'll give this one another year or two.

Another year or two.

got him.

Nice job.

You grabbing over here too?

very nice girls.

More frogs.

Two more.

All right, let's see.

There's one.

See him?

Big enough to gig?

Why yeah.

Get him.

He's pegged.

Hold on to yours Chad.

you got him.

hold on.

I'll gt them both.

wait.

wait.

I need someone to hold the light.

I got the light.

Wait a minute.

One at a time.

All right here's yours.

You got him.

Yeah, let me get Chad's.

Got him?

yeah, that's a pretty good one.

Ain't bad.

Not bad.

There's your frog.

We'll take it.

I'll swap you.

Perfect.

Hey, here.

I'm comin along there nonstop.

Every couple steps, we see another.

Here's one.

You grabbing or gigging Jess?

grabbing.

Got him.

Got him.

There you go.

Gigged one.

Fine as a fritter.

Stop.

Don't move.

Don't move.

What is it?

Don't move.

Oh right under my feet.

I told you I step on them little guys.

That's perfect.

That's funny.

There's a bigger one over here.

I'll have to gig him.

Got him?

Sure do.

Got him..

Pretty good one.

That is a good one.

There you go.

Now, that's the kind we're after right there.

Yes.

They'll do.

15 of those, and you got a skillet full.

There's one right there.

hold on.

I'm going.

You girls have got great frog gigging enthusiasm, I have to say.

Look at that.

That's a boone and Crockett frog right there.

Got him I believe we got him.

There you go.

Another one.

There you go.

Got him.

Oh.

You got him.

They're everywhere in here.

I will say one thing.

This pond is plum loaded with frogs.

You know, we came in here not knowing exactly how we're going to get these frogs.

And we did try to shoot a couple with a bow and arrow.

It's just too thick, too many cattails.

We grabbed some big ones.

Gigged some big ones, and I bet we got 35 frogs.

More I think.

Or more.

It has to be more.

I think last I counted, we had 35, so we had a heck of a night out.

And Montgomery County is the place to come for frogs.

Look at them, It's not bad.

You got plenty of frogs.

Thanks again.

A lot of fun.

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 this nice largemouth bass.

It was caught by Danny Goins of Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

Nice fish.

Here we have little Sawyer Davis who caught his very first fish ever in his papa Pat's pond.

A nice bluegill.

Congratulations.

Check out this nice saugeye that was caught by Sam Bishar out of Taylorsville lake tailwaters.

Nice job.

Here we have four year old Gavin David Snyder.

He caught his very first fish, a nice bluegill at Cedar Creek Lake with his Papa Dave.

Nice job.

Here we have Audrey and Clay Scott doing some spring fishing with their nana and papa in Dawson Springs, Kentucky.

Nice job.

Jamison West of Pulaski County caught this nice largemouth bass in early March.

Nice job.

Memorial Day weekend is right around the corner.

If you're a boater, now's a good time to check all your essentials and make sure they're in good working order.

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.