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 going to showcase some of the unique small game hunting opportunities that can be done right here in Kentucky.

We're headed to Henry County to put some of the best squirrel dogs I've ever hunted with to the test.

Then we're headed to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to chase quail.

But first, we've got the dogs loaded up and we█re ready to put them on the ground for a rabbit hunt.

Well, today we're out here in Woodford County.

This cold morning.

Got the beagles out, getting ready to chase some rabbits, and I don't often get to hunt with a wildlife biologist, but today I'm here with Joe Lacefield.

Joe, this is a piece of property you spend a lot of time on.

And, hopefully we're going to find some rabbits.

Hopefully.

I worked with the previous landowner 30 years ago, and we established native grasses in a lot of places.

And luckily, I'm still able to recreate on it with the new landowners.

You brought your son, Ashton.

Now he's got a couple of beagles he's doing some training with.

That's right.

What do you love about, training dogs?

Oh, it's just fun seeing how they learn and how fast that happens.

Even though you're 12 years old, you're obviously training dogs and you're an experienced rabbit hunter.

I tell you what.

The dogs are fired up, ready to go.

I say we get after it.

All right, let's do it.

Let's go.

Come on, come on, come on.

Now, my little lemon dog, when she barks, it's a whine.

And let me tell you, she doesn't bark until she pretty hot on, like.

I mean, she has to be hot, hot, hot.

All right.

I was going to say it's a single, single dog barking.

You might want to hop right back here.

We better load up, because I got a feeling they got one going.

Oh, boy.

Oh, you see it?

Went between us?

Lacey, here, here ,here ,here.

Lacey, here, here.

Oh, that was a squirrel.

About shot that squirrel.

I never seen a squirrel come through.

Brush pile, shoot across the trail like that.

I was like, I hope that's not what they█re running.

Oh, man.

Love that sound.

I have three dogs and the lacefields have two dogs.

They've never met, and now they all trust each other and they're running this rabbit together.

It's a beautiful thing.

There it goes.

Coming to you, Joe.

Checkers, dead.

Yep.

You smell one.

So that rabbit was jumped right there, and we saw it come down and go up the hill.

Right.

Snuck around and I saw what happened to us.

That rabbit set down for, like, 4 or 5 minutes.

And Lacey went by it 2 or 3 times and it shot out right to you.

Good shot.

Nice job.

Thank you.

Way to go.

Oh, we're on the board.

Let's see if we can get them back in here.

Because this is a good looking area.

That's all native grasses.

And then at the head of it, the top of that up there is a woodland that was 90% ash trees.

And all the ash died or they had them harvested.

And now there's tops on the ground and briers, and it's just a. Perfect habitat huh?

There█s some trails through it.

Anyway, we'll get on rabbits in there.

They got one up, you hear that?

Here it comes.

Dang it.

That's a good sign.

I hope he got it.

Ashton is the only one down there with a shotgun.

I'd say got it because he█d have shot three times.

I don't know how I missed it when it was running at me.

He was running toward you?

Yup.

Well that happens.

That's fun.

Come on Lacey.

Hunt in here.

Hunt in here.

Hunt in here, hunt in here.

Here's the different grasses, Chad.

So this is switchgrass.

Okay.

This is Indian grass.

Okay.

And then the third one is big blue.

Some people call Turkey Foot.

Those are three different grass.

Man they look similar, but.

Three different types of native grasses.

Okay.

Yeah.

This is big bluestem.

And this is great habitat for rabbits, quail?

It's great overhead cover, open underneath.

Even if it gets lodged by snow and wind it still has pockets of cover.

It doesn't just disappear.

Lay down like fescue does.

I might have seen the rabbit.

Yep, I did see the rabbit.

I think I just saw it too.

Right there.

Right through the woods.

Yep, yep.

That was your pond rabbit.

Yep.

There's always a pond bunny.

They jumped that rabbit right there.

And so they've pushed it out and they're going up that line.

It's a good chance it's going to come right back.

So why don't you stay in there, get yourself good shot.

And if it comes through the woods here, I'll get over on the side.

Okay?

Yes sir.

All right.

Get ready.

I█ll let you know when they're on their way back.

Right now, they're probably 130 out.

There█s something.

Down there, I see like ears.

Right here.

Getting ready to be in the road.

I'll tell you one thing.

We're out here having a blast today.

It's not a numbers game because for whatever reason, we're having a rough time getting in the right spot.

This rabbit has made a loop of about 200 yards.

300 yards, three times past this spot, I feel like, man, I got to go over to help these dogs out.

This has been a one hour or longer race to try to get this rabbit and finally able to put it down.

Man, we're having fun.

It's like I say, we're not killing a bunch of rabbits, but the dogs are working hard and we're having a blast.

Hey, Jose.

Hey, Jose.

Look, look, Jose.

Dead, dead dead dead.

Checkers.

Checkers.

Dead dead.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead, dead.

Where█s Bell?

Come on Bell.

Come on Bell.

Let me get up there and call the dogs.

Get them working in front of us.

Come here Bell.

Come on.

Good girl, Jose.

Come on checkers.

Come on Bell!

Hunt In here.

Hunt in here, hunt in here.

When we burn this, sometimes I've seen 20 or 30 rabbits come out of one field.

So how often you burn this?

Once every 3 to 5 years.

Something like?

Yeah, it's been.

It's due to get burned again.

Find a rabbit girl.

133.

118.

96.

Got it?

Yep.

Sweet.

Nice job.

Thank you.

Got him one down.

I felt bad for him.

He, He missed a shot earlier.

He wasn't happy with himself.

Although it wasn't a real easy shot.

Got redemption.

Yeah.

Look at it.

Nice job, buddy.

Thank you.

Where'd he come from?

He came just right down hee through the woods.

Sweet.

We'll see if these dogs kind of follow him out.

Keep him out of your pouch real quick, and we'll, we'll let them see it.

Let them know that that race is over.

That's a big bunny.

Yeah.

Nice job.

Here they come.

Definitely the rabbit they were chasing.

Man, that rabbit was way out in front of them wasn█t it?

Yeah, those dogs are way back there.

Oh, there you go.

There you go.

Here, here, here.

Jose come here.

Dead.

Jose, come here.

Jose, come here.

Dead, dead, dead, dead.. Oh yeah.

Come on Checkers.

Checkers, dead, dead, dead.

Good job, buddy.

Yep.

Well I tell you what, I can't think of a better way to spend a morning out here doing this.

Watching the dogs.

We saw some great habitat.

We had a lot of good races.

Probably could use a couple more hunters.

These rabbits are smart.

You got to be in the right place at the right time.

And it's just luck sometimes.

Yeah, the game for me has never come out here and see how many I can actually harvest.

It's all about coming out here and learning something, watching the dogs work.

And you know what, to finish the day off with this young man getting a rabbit, couldn't have been better, Ashton.

I hope you enjoyed yourself.

Yep, I sure did.

Next time I may have to get my son out here, we'll do a rabbit hunt together.

He loves yelling at the dogs as well, motivating them.

That's what he calls it, motivating them.

So thanks a lot.

We appreciate you letting us come out.

Thank you, Ashton.

Thank you, thank you.

It was a lot of fun.

We'll do it again.

If you hunt here in the state of Kentucky, there's a pretty good chance you started off squirrel hunting.

Recently, I got an opportunity to go hunt in front of a pack of World champion squirrel dogs.

This morning we're in Henry County, Kentucky, and we're doing something that I really enjoy doing, and that is squirrel hunting with dogs.

But these aren't just normal dogs, are they?

Now they, they a lil█ different.

Tell me, what type of, breed of dog you've got here and, kind of what they're trying to do.

So Knockout here he is, a treeing cur.

And we strictly just competition hunt.

Mostly.

They're not your typical mountain feist.

When you cut them, they're going.

They don't come back to you.

This isn't just Kentucky.

You're traveling all over for this.

Yeah, we actually we leave in two weeks to go to Mississippi.

We've been to Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, everywhere.

Wow.

And there's actually, there's a lot of money in this, isn't there?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's, there's a lot of money in it.

You can you can really do well.

Squirrel competitions really big in Kentucky?

Yeah.

We, we travel actually, LBL, Land between the lakes.

They have one of our biggest hunts of the year.

They have a junior world and a and a big world hunt.

Okay?

And, was it three years?

Three years ago, they had 63 dogs and we actually finished one, two, three at the world.

Wow.

Tell me this dog's name again.

Pleasant home pearl.

She seems to be the one that's a little more docile this morning, but she's ready to go, huh?

Well, well, don't let that fool you.

She█s just easy to handle, huh?

She's eight little over eight years old now, so she's calmed down a little.

But she don't act like eight year old when you cut her loose.

Especially if there ain't nothing moving.

Oh, yeah.

She covers a lot of ground.

Yes, yes.

I have hunted behind feists and curs this the first time on a treeing cur.

So I'm excited to see how these dogs do.

It's different when you get in the field with people who... when you see how people that raise hunting dogs, the love and the attention that you give.

Oh, yeah, I mean, these are like family members, aren't they?

Yeah, yeah, we spend a lot of time with them.

Our families are big hunters.

Yeah, our whole family's big hunters.

So this is like a family tradition for us.

Oh, yeah, they're beautiful dogs.

I will say that.

And you can tell they're well bred and, and ready to go.

Good to go?

You guys say the word.

Having three dogs is just like a competition.

That's basically the same.

Everything's the exact same right now.

This is like a training competition for you guys right now.

Kind of have a bark like a coon dog, don█t they?

Yeah, that's why we've bred them the way we do.

So we can hear them where they hunt so deep.

You got to be able to hear them.

So the initial barks that we're hearing right now is that indicating anything?

That there's red hot.

They're they'll be treed here in just a second.

They don't.

There's they see that.

That one's red, red hot.

Really?

Okay.

So they go into a different bark when when they're actually.

So them big long balls right there.

That's mine coming treed.

Okay.

Yeah.

When he does those big long balls like that that's him basically showing treed.

Okay.

Well that took what about 30 seconds?

Yeah.

Somewhere in there.

I noticed you were carrying, a thermal monocular, too.

I guess that's a really good way to.

Yeah, a lot of times, like, we go down south or anywhere down and there, we'll- trees down there are monsters and see a lot of pines.

So I mean having that find, you know, just one in a pine or you know, even being able to just find where to locate you know it can pay for itself basically.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Because you're, I mean if you're training dogs it's really nice to know is there really if I can't see it physically see it with my eyes.

But if that'll help you find one.

It helps your training does it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it'll even show heat coming out of a den, you know, that kind of thing.

So, yeah, if one of us get beat out.

Say we go to hunt and one of us get beat out, a lot of times we'll stay.

Like, if he if he advances or if I advance or Josh advances, we'll stay and we'll go and help and we'll take the thermals and we'll run the thermals while he's handling on the dog.

You know we can find the squirrel quicker.

You got, you got, you got a time limit.

So you got five minutes when you get treed after you handle to find it.

So it's just.

Oh yeah.

Something to help speed up the process.

Absolutely.

I can I can understand that.

Yeah that makes sense.

Well you guys let me know how long you- we█ll go to this one here first.

We got Cat treed right here.

This is a little different squirrel hunting than the way I was raised: sitting in there being real quiet, waiting for a squirrel to come out.

Man, you cut these dogs loose, then suddenly we got three squirrel opportunities within minutes.

One█s right here.

You ready?

Ready to go.

All right.

We're going to see if we can't get this one out of here.

Got him.

Good shot.

There he comes.

Good job.

Thank you.

Nice young gray!

There you go.

I'll tell you what you like eating squirrels don't get no better than that.

Perfect.

Nice.

Young gray.

Yep.

Good start.

It is a good start.

There we go.

I say we go over to this next one.

We'll have another one.

We've already got a. I've already got dogs.

On another tree ready to go.

So we're going to load this squirrel up in the, I got a game pouch here, and, we'll see what this next dog has.

You already see it?

That big left limb up there about 20ft from the top, I think I see it.

You got him.

Oh, there he comes.

Good shot.

There we go.

Shot well thank you.

Lookie there.

Got him a male squirrel there.

Oh we got another dog on a tree, don█t we?

Yes, sir.

All right, let's go.

See him there in that point?

Oh, I do not see it.

He's right there to the right in the right side of that limb.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, I see it.

There█s nothing like getting out, working your dogs.

Get a little target practice.

Taking home a mess of squirrels for the table.

This is a perfect morning.

There's very few things that█ll take you back to your childhood than this right here.

When you were a young kid did you use dogs then to?

Oh, yeah.

So you█ve been using dogs your entire- I've had dogs my whole entire life.

Beagles.

Some of squirrel dog, coon dogs, something.

All right.

Well, let's regroup and see what we got.

Everybody good?

And the race is on.

Cat█s treed.

Furle█s freed and I think Knockout█s about to get- Yeah.

Well which one do you guys think we ought to go too first?

They're closer.

Okay.

Squirrels in that second tree.

That's the first one.

He's about- you can barely- Oh, I think I see.

he's on the right side.

Yeah, I see, I see him right there.

There's two squirrel.

Oh there's two?

Yeah there's two.

There's one right below that one on my side.

Well okay.

Good shot.

You guys saying under the second squirrel in here?

Wait, I think I see.

Oh yeah.

You guys look up and see where the, the right up there were kind of splits.

It's on the right hand side.

You see that squirrel up there?

Nice shot two for one.

Do you get bonuses on that?

Nah, that don't count.

I wish it did sometime.

Squirrel number two.

It's a male.

Another gray squirrel.

You see it, is it in that cedar tree here?

Yeah, he's just sitting there Chad, If you go right up the hill there, you should be able to see him.

see that little nest in this tree?

Yeah, he's sitting right above it.

All right.

You hit it.

I heard it, thud.

Hit him again, you better get him another shot.

That got him.

well, Michael, I have to tell you one thing.

That is the quickest limit of squirrels I've ever killed.

I've hunted some pretty good spots and had a bunch of squirrels, but literally just walking from tree to tree, chasing these dogs.

That's six in- Ah well I can probably pretty much tell you by this.

We've been on the ground about 32 minutes, 32 minutes, and that's when walking we walked, what, 250 yards?

Before we even cut loose.

I'll tell you what.

These dogs are absolutely amazing.

And you hear them.

They're they're ready to go.

Yeah.

They█d do this all day, wouldn█t they?

Oh yeah.

Yeah yeah.

There's a lot of times we have to hunt three rounds a day, so you know.

Yeah.

They gotta be in good shape and they█re ready.

I am done, but I█d like to see the dogs tree again if you want to cut them loose.

Yep.

Yeah.

We'll, we'll get them gathered up.

We'll get around the point and cut them back loose.

What a fun day.

Yeah.

Thank you.

If you're a quail hunter, it doesn't matter what part of the state you live in.

You probably realize that habitat is the most important factor to locating quail.

And we did just that in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.

We're down here in eastern Kentucky in Knott County this beautiful morning and I'm here with Brandon.

Brandon, this is a little different than the last time you and I hunted together.

We're running some dogs today.

A little smaller animal.

I'm with you.

You know, we're doing a small game hunt.

And every time we're down here, elk hunting or elk scouting, it seems like we always jump a lot of rabbits and we actually flush coveys of quail, which, you know, it's not really easy to find wild coveys of quail anymore.

So, you know, you guys have got the perfect habitat for it.

What are our chances of getting a covey up?

I think we'll be good.

We've ran, there█s a few spots, probably four or five times this year already, so it's been quite a bit.

So we should be good.

I'm going to say two to three covey today, especially decent sized coveys.

10, 12, 15 birds.

That's a really good day.

So, who knows?

Let's go.

We'll see what happens.

I'm looking forward to it.

Let's go, Waylon.

Come on.

What, you got Waylon?

Waylon and Jessie.

Waylon and Jessie.

Waylon and Jessie, There you go.

Go Jessie, Let█s go girl.

It's amazing.

You look out over these hills and ridges and it looks like it's all ankle high.

It is a big difference once you step out in it.

I like the road.

Waylon here.

I think he█s pointing on the hill there.

Oh, you got them pointing in two different places?

Yeah I'd say they're walking, feeding this morning.

Sitting right here up in that little small patch there.

Think we got a bird?

Maybe.

Let█s walk in and find out.

Easy Jessie.

Jessie's locked up.

Yeah Woah Well that was quicker than I expected.

I couldn█t swing any further.

I saw it here and one single went out this way.

Do you think you got anything down?

Uh, worth checking.

Good Job.

Oh look.

Good, Job.

Good job, girl.

Very nice, lookie there.

pretty little creatures are they?

Oh, beautiful bird.

Let's go find another covey.

Let's go.

Come find another covey, come on, girl.

Jessie█s right over here pointing.

Uh oh.

What do you got Jessie?

Oh, single.

Wow.

Now that was a bunch of quail.

Yes they were, that was spread out.

I mean, that was a bunch.

Time we got our attention on this single that went out this way.

They all slipped out the back side on us.

I don't think either one of us got a real good- No.

Bit of a long, long shot.

I was shooting through autumn olive I knew that wasn█t going to go good.

But, you know, you flush a covey that size you got to pick a bird and try to make the best of it.

Waylon, you got to find that bird, buddy.

What do you got, buddy.

Wow.

That ear laid back.

What do you got buddy?

I don't know.

It's usually when she stands up, head up.

It's usually- Whoa!

That was a covey.

Yep.

On point?

He looks it.

It's a woodcock.

That season's not in.

Leave it be, bubby.

Sure was, pointed a woodcock.

Brandon I can't tell you how much I enjoyed today.

Was a great day.

I said it earlier.

I think that that one of the most beautiful things you can see in the state of Kentucky is a covey rise.

It's shocking, first off, but then secondly, watching them take off and all the different directions.

Well, I've said it before, I'll say it again.

You live in a small slice of heaven.

Hey, appreciate it.

It█s different opportunities every time.

That█s a fact.

You got opportunities to fish and hunt and big game hunt and today it was the small game and today may have been my favorite.

I'm with you.

I've said it from the get go.

I love turkey hunting, deer hunting, elk hunting but quail hunting takes the cake.

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 great buck that was taken by nine year old Wyatt McKinney.

This deer was taken in Spencer County using a muzzle loader.

Nice job.

Check out the size of this blue catfish that was caught by ten year old Brent Slusher.

This fish was caught on Christmas Eve on the Ohio River.

Beautiful fish.

Larry Payne's been doing some catfishing on Barren River Lake, and caught this giant 71 pound blue catfish.

Great fish.

Here we have seven year old Eden Smith, who went squirrel hunting on Christmas Eve morning and took her first gray squirrel.

Nice job.

Are you planning on hunting and fishing in Kentucky this year?

Well, the 2026 Sportsman's License are now available.

Save yourself some time and money by buying them today.

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 hope to see you in the woods or on the water.