Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

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

This week we're headed out with biologist to Woodford County in hopes of trapping wild turkey.

Then we're headed out at night for a predator hunt.

But first, we're headed out to beautiful Red River Gorge to take in the scenery and hopefully catch some trout.

Today we are in the Red River Gorge here in the Daniel Boone National Forest and I'm with Bill Carman.

Long term friend.

Yep, been a while.

We have some of the same passions as well.

Yeah, we sure do.

That's for sure.

You love to fish.

I do.

And you- What else is there?

Yeah.

So there you go.

You know, one of the things that I do not do that you are deeply involved in: That's writing.

You're actually an author.

You've got several books out.

Yeah, I've got currently got four books on the market, and I've got one more that's getting ready to hit.

By the time this airs, it'll probably be on the street.

The name of the book is Fishing with Daniel Boone: Fly Fishing the Streams of an American Hero.

Now, Daniel Boone was not a fisherman.

He for sure wasn't a fly fisherman, but he may have caught some fish from time to time with nets or spears or something, but, you know, for food.

But the book's point is that I was able to immerse myself literally in places where Daniel Boone had his adventures and did some exploration and had some tragedies.

So this book will really appeal to, obviously a fly fisherman because you're talking about fishing exploits on these bodies of water.

That's correct.

What you caught, what you caught them on.

You're giving all the details, right?

Right.

How you access the creek and streams.

But then you're also putting a lot of history into those pieces as well.

As far as what it may have been like when Daniel Boone was there, what they experienced, which would have been much different time.

Yeah, a little different time.

They probably didn't have cell phones like we do.

Well, I'll tell you what, this area behind this looks like It's a great opportunity to catch a trout.

This is a cold stream isn█t it?

it is.

So this is an opportunity to catch a trout.

I want to try to catch a fish and hear some more stories about Daniel Boone's time here in Kentucky.

Water is a little bit high today, which makes it a little more difficult to find fish.

Sometimes when there's quite a bit of current and the water█s high like this, sometimes they'll hang out in eddies right on the edge of the main current so they can see food.

Like right in here?

Yeah.

Give it a whirl right there.

This area where we are right now, the Red River Gorge, is an area that Boone spent some time on starting in the summer of 1769.

This is the Daniel Boone National Forest, and we're near the Sheltowee Trace, which is a hiking trail that is named after Daniel Boone█s Shawnee name.

The book takes the reader from the Yadkin River in North Carolina, where he spent his youth, all the way to the Femme Osage, the stream behind the house where he died in Missouri.

There are 25 streams in the book, and I fished all those streams and I wrote about the fly fishing, but I also wove the Boone lore through the fishing stories.

Good cast.

There's a family in Lexington and for years they had this elk antler and it had “D.

Boone” carved in it.

And these people had this antler, been in their family for years, and they decided they were going to donate it to the museum at Boonesborough.

Okay.

And they said the museum said, well, you know, everybody's got something with “D.

Boone” carved on it.

Yeah, because how many “D.

Boone█s” were hunting in Kentucky in late 1700█s?

Yeah.

So they approached RMEF to pay for the carbon dating.

Of course RMEF is involved in the elk restoration here and everything.

They thought it'd be kind of cool.

So they did and it's sure enough late 1700s.

It's the correct age.

The antler was found in Hingston Creek in the mid 1800s.

And sure enough, the trip that they took when he was captured by the Shawnee, he was with a group of salt makers and he was their hunter.

He was hunting for food for them to eat while they were boiling salt.

That was the same year that was on the antler.

Wow.

So there's you know, you've got it's all circumstantial, but you've got the antler█s the right age.

You got Boone█s signature.

And he was a hunter who would have been- Yeah.

So where does it at now?

It's at Boonesborough.

That's amazing.

I know, isn█t that cool?

It█s very cool.

I keep getting hung on a stick here.

Always one stick guarding a beautiful hole.

Fish on.

Sweet.

That's why I like to bring people who know how to fish.

Well, we've got a trout.

We definitely have a rainbow trout.

Yeah.

You to work it over here?

Sweet.

Good job, buddy.

Pretty little rainbow trout.

Now, that was in that little seam- right there.

That we literally walked up and that fish was- That█s what did it, we woke him up.

We sure did.

Woke him up.

We got him up and rolling.

Very cool.

Come here.

I don't want to touch it.

You're not really- It's bad to get your hands on the skin of those things.

I was pulling it up through right there and all of the sudden, It just popped it.

Sweet.

There you go.

There you go.

Well, let█s stand here, you fish.

Fish it some more.

Fish that whole area right there some more.

There may be more right in there.

We went upstream and I was just dragging this little fly.

That keyed into what to do and where they were.

We got lucky.

I█ll have to pay you to come with me on all my trips.

I was being a little lazy and just with these overhanging limbs when I was keeping my rod tip up.

I ended up putting the- Here you go.

Perfect.

It's a nice one.

That looks like a decent fish there.

Yeah.

What do you know?

On the something here.

Nice.

Wasn█t a whole lot bigger but a little bit.

Now we're getting some fish.

Hop out there and catch you one.

The one cardinal sin is for a guide to catch a fish bigger than his client.

And the way to prevent that is to just don't fish.

I got one.

Oh, there you go.

That looks like a pretty good fish, too.

Very cool.

I hope your rod there.

Perfect.

You throwing the same little bait?

No, I'm throwing that mop fly.

That's a better fish.

Yep.

Come down here- Look at that jump.

Look at that.

Look at that.

So much fun.

I missed him.

There we go.

You got the old bass set.

That was not quite as big, but still a fish.

He█s not as big.

But we'll take it.

Hey, down here, fishing the gorge, you█re taking in the beauty.

It's not about catching 10 pound fish, man.

Just looking round.

The beauty of the Red River Gorge.

If you've ever been here, you'll never forget the trip to the Red River Gorge.

I always enjoy coming out and fishing with you and I enjoy the stories.

I just enjoy your passion for fishing, the outdoors, and history.

Well thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

It's always a fun time.

Have you ever taken a wild turkey here in Kentucky with a leg band, and wondered how did that get there?

Well, we're about to show you.

So today we're out here trying to trap or rocket net wild turkeys for our wild turkey study that we're doing.

And we're set up here.

We have anywhere from 4 to 12 birds showing up.

We'll pull the trigger on jakes or toms, and then we'll put bands on them and then release them back.

And then during hunting season, if anybody harvest those birds, we'll basically get that information back and goes into the four year study going on.

So hopefully it'll be a good shoot.

So this study began in 2021 in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency began trapping turkeys.

We joined the study the next year, and it's a really unique opportunity for both states to look at harvest rates on male turkeys during the spring season.

Hunting is the main source of mortality for adult gobblers, and so we're trying to get a sense of how much pressure we're putting on the gobblers and jakes in our populations across our states.

So this type of work has been done for decades in other places.

It was done in Kentucky back in the late 80s or early 90s.

And so it's kind of a pulse check on our population because things are very different now.

We have a lot more turkeys than we did at that point.

At that point, they were mostly confined to an area of western Kentucky.

Now we've got them statewide.

We harvest 30 plus thousand turkeys every spring, which is good.

But is that more than we should be taking?

The way you get at that is with harvest rate.

Everything is good there.

Beautiful.

So once we find a suitable site, then it's really getting an idea of where the birds are using, you know, what fields they are in.

We'll start by putting some bait out.

Usually thats cracked corn.

And we put a trail camera up.

We're watching to see when the birds show up.

At that point, we can get a sense of their pattern and we can plan the actual capture.

Once the birds have been showing up consistently for several days in a row, we've got to kind of act fast because turkeys can just turn fickle.

Inexplicably, they can just stop showing up at a bait site for no reason seemingly.

Everything is set.

Now time for a good shoot.

Hopefully.

Sitting for turkeys, you really don't realize it until you're in the middle of a study like this.

And we've set countless of hours in a blind without success and Russ and I we've set several times this year alone and have turkeys there, just not interested in corn for whatever reason.

Hopefully today's not that day.

Got deer now coming out into the field.

It's amazing how many deer this place holds.

There are several hunters that harvest does off this place, but it seems like they multiply up here faster than other places.

We just heard some birds gobbling down over the ridge, so hopefully it won't be too long now.

Yeah, we got birds coming down the hill right now.

Longbeards.

All right, here we go.

Got him.

Good shot fellas.

So once we fire and have the birds under the net, our first goal is safety.

So we're trying to help make sure the birds are as secure as they can.

And we want to reduce injuries.

So we'll throw a jacket over them.

Or maybe a towel.

Just something to calm them down so they're not thrashing about.

We'll put a leg band on them.

So these are aluminum held on with a rivet.

So they're very secure on the birds leg.

Most of them are regular silvery aluminum.

About a quarter of them though are green aluminum.

And those come with a reward.

And the reason we do that is to help us calibrate the estimates that we get.

And a big shout out to the National Wild Turkey Federation who chipped in funding on those rewards.

So they're another partner.

Really.

It's been a good opportunity to bring a lot of people together.

So a major thanks to the many landowners that have allowed us access to their farms across the state.

I mean, we've got birds banded from Pikeville to Paducah.

We've also got birds banded on public lands.

So that's a testament across the board to our department staff who have put in many, many hours.

It's fun work, but it can be some long hours while you're waiting for the turkeys to show up because they don't always cooperate.

We're going to weigh these birds.

And then on the back end, we'll subtract the weight of the box out.

So we're going to stick.

We're going to I'm going to go ahead before we go down I'm going to feel body condition.

We're looking to see you know are the birds healthy good condition.

A subset will also have a blood sample taken and a swab sample.

We're trying to look for various diseases and essentially just get a sense of the baseline health of the turkey population.

Turkey in a box.

One down, two more to go.

Our goal is to capture 300 male turkeys across Kentucky every year.

We just completed our fourth year of doing this, and we've met our goal this year, so we get a lot of good information from it.

We can kind of tell, you know, some years it's been harder to capture turkeys than others, and that sort of reflects the population.

But we've seen an increase recently.

And it's also looking good because this past year we've caught a higher percentage of jakes, of young turkeys, which bodes well for the future.

Ready?

I got the bird.

I say I did.

Big old bird.

With the weight of the box.

32.13, 31.11, 32.04.

Now is the fun part.

Releasing them back.

So what we've learned so far is that harvest rates in Kentucky seem to be right in line with where we want to be.

We're harvesting about 28% of our gobblers, which is pretty in line with common recommendations for management.

We also know that where we have a lower bag limit.

So our Wildlife Management Areas where you're only allowed to take one bird, we see lower harvest rates.

While it may seem like common sense, it's an important piece of information to know because in the future we might want to make a regulation change.

And now we've got a sense of how well that can work.

And really, we just have the overall goal of maintaining a healthy turkey population and good hunting opportunities for Kentuckians into the future.

Deer season is now over and the temperatures are getting cold.

That means it's time to grab the rifle and head out for a predator hunt.

Well I'm super excited to be out here tonight.

I'm gonna try my luck with a little bit of nighttime coyote hunting.

There's so much dedicated gear to be out here, and this is a perfect time of year to do it.

It's February.

It's cold out.

It█s right before the breeding season for coyotes.

And hopefully they're already out and about because coyotes are nighttime scavengers and hunters.

Now, coyote hunting here in the state of Kentucky can be done day or night, year round.

But if you're going to use any type of means to illuminate a field or to help make any wildlife visible in a field like what I'm using tonight, which is an infrared scope or a thermal scope or any other type of light, it has to be done during a limited season.

Hopefully I can get out here and get set up, use some coyote vocalizations, get a coyote interested, get them in range and hopefully get a shot.

Looky there.

Now, I don't know if a coyote is responsible for killing this deer, but it's obvious that a coyote has drug this leg of this deer out here.

I'll tell you what I deer hunt this place quite a bit.

So, I have no love for the coyote.

All right.

Let's start out with a female invitation.

Chad right there.

There's one in the field at 1:00.

All right, here we go.

I don't know.

It came in to the right.

I tried to get on it.

I got down right where I thought it was at.

And when I finally saw the coyote I shot.

I don't know what happened.

It may have been a clean miss.

Oh, man.

Well I looked all over for that coyote and I guess it missed.

The good news is it's early.

And I got time for another set.

This is a spot that I like.

It's mainly because of the way the field is crowned where I can see all the way across the field.

So I█m going to get the call set up, tuck back in these woods, get set up on the bipod, give it a try.

All right.

We█re going to start out here with a couple of female howls.

Try to see if we got anything in the area.

All right, now I'm going to move to the yipping coyotes.

Oh, that was a bark, that was a coyote bark and it sounded like it's... There it is again.

I should be able to see this coyote.

There he is.

I got him.

I got him.

I got him.

He's barking.

The coyote█s moving to the left.

But I think I█ll still get a shot.

Oh, man, I don't see the coyote.

That's a that's a little further than I was wanting to shoot tonight, but it barked soon as I made a call.

I wasn't expecting it to be so fast.

I hope I got a coyote down.

Lets go take a look.

There he is right there.

Sure enough.

Oh, my gosh.

Well, I can tell you, this is not how I expected this to go down.

You know, you might see a coyote one every three or four times you set up.

This time I came out and put the call out, put a female howl out there and literally waited a minute.

And before I even got to put my next call out, I heard a bark.

This coyote was right on me.

It was literally 200 yards away.

And when that happened, I got an opportunity to see that thing actually barking on camera.

I see it carrying on.

It gave me enough time to get down, try to get a really good shot.

Thank God I was on my bipod and my shooting sticks.

I got down, I was on a knee and was able to put this coyote down.

And I'll be honest with you, until I walked through this field and saw this coyote, I wasn't sure I'd hit it.

My first nighttime coyote with the new rifle season here in Kentucky now it█s been in for a couple of years.

What a cool experience.

One more coyote off this piece of property.

Hopefully this is good for my deer, my turkey, my rabbits and everything else.

I'm going to get my gear and this coyote and get it picked up and get it out of the field.

And I'm going to be looking at my calendar and trying to look and see when I can get back out here and do this again.

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 Shana Haines holding two sandhill cranes that she took while hunting in Barren County.

Nice job.

Here we have Jeremy Lockhart of Henry County.

He headed out to eastern Kentucky and was able to tag this cow elk.

Nice job.

Check out nine year old Dawson Branscombe.

Here he is holding his first rabbit he took in Wayne County.

Nice job.

Are you looking for some inspiration for cold weather activities outdoors?

Well, head on over to YouTube and search for Kentucky Afield.

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.