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 have a little bit of something for everyone.

First, we're hitting the woods on a rabbit hunt using birds of prey.

Then we're headed down to the Kentucky River to bank fish in search of Sauger.

But first up, deer season is over with modern firearm and snow is in the forecast, making it a perfect time to hit the field for a varmint hunt.

Well, Chuck, we're out here in Henry County.

This is your deer hunting farm.

Yes.

Your turkey hunting farm.

Your rabbit hunting farm.

That's it.

Today, It's a little different, though.

Yeah.

Gonna be a little coyote hunting farm.

Yeah, we're going to do a little bit of predator hunting.

Primarily focusing on coyotes.

Yeah.

It's a cold morning.

Got a layer of snow on the ground.

This is an opportunity for us to get out and hopefully if we present an early meal— easy meal, maybe we can get a coyote to come in.

I hope so.

Like I said it's been cold now for going on almost two weeks straight.

Still got a lot of snow on the ground.

So hopefully they're they're ready to eat.

I tell you what.

We probably got about 25 minutes till light.

You█re wanting to move to the very, very back side of the farm, right?

Yeah.

Let's start there and then work our way back to the front of the farm.

That was close.

That█s a big— that█s a big coyote.

It█s down.

It█s down.

He█s down.

Got another one.

I can— I could hear something That's why— This is the same spot last year I called it a double.

A male and a female.

That was awesome.

Oh, yeah.

That was, you█re talking about close encounters.

You know, when we came back here in the woods, this is not like most coyote sets that I do in the sense that I'm usually set up in a spot that I can shoot 300 yards if needed.

This is tight quarters that first shot— that was an archery style shot, that was 35 yards.

Man you can see the blood trail in the snow from that female.

Oh yeah.

Oh she was pumping blood.

I'm surprised she went that far.

Yeah.

But I had to shoot through a little bit of brush or I might not have hit her as good as I wanted to, but I can see her laying down there.

Yeah, I can see her there too.

So man, that was great.

You put us right here on them.

Like I said, I will tell you this.

You heard the second one and you actually made a motion to cut the volume and you were like, kill that sound.

I hear something running through the snow.

Yeah.

So when I hit that mute button, that coyote was 60 yards or closer.

Yeah, I heard it, but I couldn't tell if it was on the same hillside that male came in or if it was on this hillside we're sitting on.

That's why I said cut it, because I wanted— you know.

And she was right here as well.

Right on top of us.

Man, you made two good shots.

Let█s round our stuff up and get moving.

Wow.

I think it went that way.

It█s over there somewhere.

Well I tell you what, Chuck, this was a perfect switch up to sitting in a deer stand.

Yeah, for sure.

This was absolutely great.

And, you know, I know that you've had a lot of coyotes on this piece of property.

Yeah.

You've been actively trying to manage them.

Yeah.

This is a this is, you know, we had this snow— January, right before the breeding season.

What a perfect opportunity to get out here and to hunt these things.

Conditions were perfect.

You know we've had this snow on the ground for over a week now.

Really cold weather, you know.

You know they're hungry.

And I think I think in these situations we're in right now, I think it's a perfect time to call one in.

Well, it couldn't have worked out any better.

We called in a double and neither shot had to be more than 50 yards.

What a great morning.

It was a lot of fun.

Let█s go get a cup of coffee.

Yeah, let's do that.

This is definitely coffee weather.

Falconry season is now in here in the state of Kentucky.

And it's one of the oldest forms of small game hunting.

If you ever get a chance to go out and watch a bird work, you should take full advantage.

The fox squirrel█s up there on the in the fork.

See it?

has way a little more up in that tree.

That the big trees, the squirrels, the dogs faces.

That's really cool.

That bird is.

Keeps getting a better vantage point to see new angles on that tree.

That hawk has got to be right on top of it right now.

There we go.

Oh, yeah.

Whoa!

Getting up.

I really anticipated, as the squirrel took off, that the bird would fly afrter it.

Well, what they do is the respect.

They they don't rebound as quickly.

Most of them don't.

They've got they got to reprogram themselves into, you know, the harris hawk Sometimes I've got a Harris hawk and I've had her rebound up and come back down and catch a rabbit this is a really cool event.

This is the first time in a long time that a bunch of falconers have gathered here in Kentucky.

Tell me a little bit about it.

So it's probably been about 20, 30 years since the Falconry Club of Kentucky's came together as a group that everyone's kind of spread out and does their own thing.

So last year, we all decided to kind of get together.

We had a summer picnic.

During that, they all came together, decided to get our club back together.

So our next step was to a field meet because that's what we all want to do is hunt.

We got people here come up yesterday from Tennessee, West Virginia.

Saint Louis, Missouri.

One coming from Colorado, a lot of around Cincinnati and northern Kentucky.

This is Phoenix.

She is a immature Harris Hawk.

She's probably around, probably eight months old.

Alright dogs.

Let█s get them up.

Come on Anna.

Get in there.

Peter There they go.

I got another.

There she goes.

This foul's called following on, and basically, the bird just follows us through the tiumber just like the dogs follows.

It will leapfrog from tree to tree to tree.

And you'll notice when the dogs bark, as soon as the dogs bark.

And most time, the bird will fly over and get right over top of the dogs.

So they've learned that the dogs are what's going to put the game up.

How did you get involved in this?

So when I was little in elementary school, I read a book called My Side of the mountain.

And then the kid lives in the woods and he has a peregrine that he raises and hunts with it.

So for some reason, that's like, stuck with me.

It's amazing.

they█re this good at this, this young age.

But really what you're doing is you're having this bird do what it naturally wants to do anyway.

And that's hunt.

And feed, right?

You take it out there and you, you you bring it in and off the trap, and you man it, and you put it around your family.

And as much distraction as you can get in, it just makes a good boy.

I mean, you know, they're not pets.

They just put up with us.

Yeah, yeah.

And stuff.

But the more you handle them and and do stuff with them, the better they're going to be.

And when I kind of turn this bird on set him around with the dog and, implemented the dog, it's just made all the difference in the world.

And that was what I found really interesting, is that you got a mountain feist down there and that dog run squirrels, and you'd sit back and just wait until it treed.

get it pearl!

What I do is I have take the take, go to the dog.

We can sit back and pretty much relax when the dog starts bark and tree.

You go in and I try to find the squirrel first.

And I'll keep her on my on my glove, on my gauntlet.

And just keep him up there and, go in.

And when I see the squirrel and locate it in the tree, I snap her up to a sapling, say, or whatever I can find close by a grapevine or whatever.

Get back and throw Carl up, and Carl starts working his way up to the top of the tree.

Get ready?

Get ready.

Hey, hey, ho ho ho!

It go in the tree?

There it goes.

We got a chase now.

This bird's about seven, eight months old.

Yes.

Did a pretty good job when it actually pulled a couple of squirrels out.

But, the squirrels right now is, two birds.

Zero.

But it didn't get a, got a flying squirrel.

A flying squirrel.

He fly straight down.

There's a flying squirrel, an eastern squirrel comes out of his den here by accident, and it's just his job to get whatever he sees.

And he got it straightened up.

our hunt's over for the squirrels with him today.

Once you use the bird for a period of time, then it goes back to the wild, correct?

Yeah.

So you can keep them as long as you have, like a current license.

Or you can hunt for season.

Release it back to the wild.

They revert back super fast.

There it goes, boys, right there.

There went a rabbit right there.

I came out from behind you.

When them dogs got up.

It really is an amazing way to hunt.

I'm assuming that this dates back thousands of years.

Yeah, so it's pretty much dates back to early human civilization.

They say Mesopotamia and people do it all over the world still to this day, right?

Yeah.

It's not as common because this is a lot of work is.

Yeah, it's a lot of work.

So you went to an apprenticeship apprenticeship program here, and that was, a couple years under someone else, under, Timothy Delaney, from Carlisle, Kentucky.

Oh ho ho.

And once that's done, you're allowed.

How many birds?

Once that's done, you will become a general falconer.

And you're allowed up to three birds as a general.

Yes.

Oh, she made it right over top of.

Oh, boom!

Got it right there.

She get it?

She get it?

She didn't get it.

Oh, man, she had it.

I guarantee you that rabbit's wounded.

It's not something you'd recommend someone is kind of on a whim to go out and do this.

Yeah.

No, usually people get this.

There's a lot of people that want to do it, and then they just.

They learn how much goes into it and they kind of.

Yeah, never.

Maybe next time.

Maybe next year.

Yeah.

It's never do it.

Well, I'll tell you what.

I've really enjoyed watching you guys handling birds.

It's obvious that you absolutely love these birds.

I bet when it gets a squirrel or gets a rabbit.

You probably couldn't be more proud of your bird, but yeah, that's like the best moment when they actually when they catch something.

So yeah, it's definitely a adrenaline rush.

You're seeing something right there.

There it is.

There we go.

There we go.

Boom!

Oh, thank.

Oh, did she get it?

she did!

Good girl.

Good girl.

That█s something to see working a pair like that wasn█t it?

Oh, that was really cool.

Here girl.

Good girl.

These are the only type birds knwon that will hunt in a catch together.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, they call them the wolves of the sky because, you know, they hunt in packs.

Yeah.

The way that they were setting up there.

And then all of a sudden, that bird came over here and set.

She kind of gave up on them for a minute.

Sure enough, that dog, that dog let out and brought that rabbit right across the field.

Did you all notice how it used that, thing out there in that field as a kind of a blocker that ran around that concrete circle there?

Yeah.

That's why your bird had to go around it.

And when she, when she hit it, it kind of rolled.

And then she come at it from this way here and flipped it and then came back up and went right back down in there.

She they just hunted right.

They've done great.

Sauger is one of the best tasting fish here in the state of Kentucky.

And it provides many opportunities in the winter, even from the bank.

So I guess that's the Frankfort pound, That's it.

I'll let you lead the way, you know, right where you're going.

All right.

So I guess the very first thing you do when you go sauger fishing is you kind of look at how much flow you got and how much weight you're going to need to keep it on the bottom, Right.

The last year, it's been hard to find a date to get on the river where it's not blown out.

Well, with so much rain that we've had.

Yeah, it's, it's really changes from one day to the next.

Most river fishermen know if it's going to be a good day as soon as they live their eyes on the water.

What are you guys thinking about today?

I like the color and the flow.

All right.

Good.

I'm going to start throwing here a little curly tail, a little swim bait, or maybe a paddle tail.

Swim bait on a quarter ounce head and see if I can keep it pegged to the bottom.

Most important thing when sauger fishing.

Keep your bait on the bottom.

You may go through some lures, but if you ain't on the bottom, I'm not going to be catching fish.

I'm from Bourbon County.

Okay.

Yeah.

So, I was raised in a little town, North Middletown.

Yeah, we all probably grew up on Stoner Creek.

And then when we came to, Frankford, naturally, we came to a bigger body of water.

Whoever catches the first fish doesn't have to buy lunch.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

We█re gonna starve.

We█re going to starve.

There he is.

Maybe they're moving in.

A few, a nice one, too.

Very nice.

Well, that's a nice one.

That was a nice, nice.

That's a sauger too isn█t it.

Yeah.

Sure is.

Boy he█s healthy.

That's a that's a nice looking fish.

There was a barge parked here.

When we first got here.

And when that barge moved, the water conditions kind of changed.

And it's finally settled back out.

He was close to the mine too.

You probably wasn█t about maybe 15ft off.

But look how healthy this is.

Oh, I know now.

I'll tell you what.

When it comes to table fare, is there a fish that you'd rather have than that right there?

Nah it's hard to beat.

So, recently we have changed the rules and regulations on sauger walleye and and hybrids of those species.

Sauger and saugeyes.

And the reason its changed.

We want to see more fish this size.

right now it's a combined if you catch walleye sauger or saugeye they all go together 14 inch length limit six per person.

Man you get six that size and you got something.

we can, yeah.

This is a pretty simple bait and fairly inexpensive.

You just got a quarter ounce ball head on there with a little paddle tail swim bait on there.

And you want to keep it simple because you're going to lose some aren█t you?

We'll see how long that fish is.

I'm going to guess that fish is 18in long, maybe longer.

Oh, almost nineteen.

Almost 19in.

That's a really, really nice fish.

Someone think they want to give this a try?

Obviously you need a rod that you can make long casts.

Medium action rod just about 10 pound test line.

And another important thing is you're looking for areas in the in the, in the bottom where you got some water current.

But it's a spot.

They can kind of rest up a little bit.

Yeah.

Just just like for instance, at the edge of that, barrier.

Yeah.

It creates a little bit of a eddy.

Yeah.

And that's a great ambush point for these type of fish.

Anyway, it gives them a break and it takes the bait and pulls the bait right to them.

Bait comes right into them.

You know.

Now, Mark, you're no stranger to fishing right here around Frankfort in the river are you?

No, I've been fishing this part of the river and all the river in Frankfort here for all my life, pretty much.

Yeah.

It's just something we always did as a kid to come down here to fish.

it's close.

It's convenient.

You never know what you're going to catch.

You got him?

Nice.

There you go.

Looks like a pretty good one.

Oh, my gosh, look at that.

Look at that.

Jeez.

And here's what you caught it on right there a little little- Little bass pro.

Bass pro with the with the with the lead head on it, man.

What a nice fish.

Look how healthy and thick this is.

This has been eating good.

This is a trophy fish.

Oh gosh.

It's a beautiful fish.

I mean this is this is a 20 inch plus fish.

And you've already got a near 19 inch fish in there, right?

This is two fish makes a mess.

Yes.

Man, they're strong aren█t they?

So we're right at 20in on this one.

It's about an inch longer than your last one.

Come down here and catch 1 or 2 of those and you've got yourself a mess of fish.

It makes it worthwhile.

We talked about fishing out here, off the bank.

You know, a lot of people would think, well, there's no chance you're going to catch such a trophy fish off the bank.

I'm sitting right here in downtown Frankfort.

It's not like we've traveled to the deep extremes of where there's no pressure.

About two miles from my house.

Two miles from house.

Come down here and you catch a beautiful, beautiful fish like this.

Look at that.

Wow, and, Bill, you said it perfectly.

If you're a person that you got an hour or two after work and you don't want to mess with dealing with your boat.

Yeah, you still run down here and run on the edge of the bank and make a couple casts.

You never know what- this is what's here.

Yeah, yeah.

I'll tell you what.

I think our day is going to get cut short.

I believe it's going to start raining, but, you know, considering you just came down here to spend some time and catch some trophy fish like this, it don't get any better, does it?

No, no no, no.

Out of all the fish species, we have game fish species we have in the state.

These, in my opinion, are some of the most beautiful.

They got that real distinctive real flat nose.

And they get in these areas and they can cut the water.

But I really appreciate you guys having us out.

Who who'd have thought?

Right here in downtown Frankfort, you can walk down and catch a couple of trophy fish.

Good kept secret.

But I believe it's going to get out there.

You know what?

You, you got two really nice ones today, and, you know what?

I'll be back.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Hopefully we█ll have to get out and do something else sometime.

Any time.

Well, I appreciate appreciate it.

Thank you guys.

Thank you, Bill, for asking me to come with you.

Yeah.

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 Laura Forshaw with their very first deer.

This year is taken in Shelby County using her grandpa's old Marlin 3030.

Nice job here.

We have ten year old Grayson Webb.

He took his very first deer on the opening day in Cumberland County.

Check out this impressive buck that was taken by Gary Helton in Edmonson County.

He said this was his 50th year deer hunting.

Nice job.

Nine year old Presley Smith took this beautiful ten point buck in Perry County.

She said it's going to be hard for her to top this one.

Nice job.

Check out this impressive big body buck that was taken by Scott Stoll.

This book was taken in Breckenridge County.

Definitely his best, he said scoring 175in here.

We have Leila Hall who said she got it done on the opening morning in Carter County.

This deer.

Greene scored 160.

Nice job.

Sam Fulton got out and caught this nice largemouth bass on a spinner bait while fishing at Friends Pond in Laurel County.

Here we have seven year old Amelia Lucas with her very first deer.

She took this doe in Breckenridge County.

Nice job.

Eight year old John went woodcock hunting in Mason County and took a few birds while hunting with his dog.

Nice job here we have 13 year old Evan Brown with a wood duck that he harvested at Ballard WMR during the Youth waterfowl hunt.

Mason Lowe said he had been watching this 12 pointer all season and finally got his chance to take this nice buck in Pike County.

Congratulations.

Nine year old Ben Cecil took this nice five point buck while hunting with his dad on the family farm in Grayson County, 11 year old Jake Hornell took this nice buck at the on the family farm in Grant County.

This deer was taken on the opening morning of gun season.

Are you looking for something to get into outdoors this week?

Well, just so happens at the late fall Turkey season runs from December the 6th to December the 12th.

Good luck.

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 on Hope.

See you in the woods or on the water.