This week on Kentucky Afield.

We're on Lake Linville, just south of Richmond, Kentucky, and we're catching Hybrid striped bass from kayaks next.

If you love to fish, then you know the best way to beat the heat is to fish at night.

And we're doing just that.

Then it's almost time to fire up the grill.

Dove season is just over two months away.

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.

There are many different ways to fish from a kayak, but one way that you may not have considered is trolling We're out here today in Rock Castle County.

What a beautiful morning to be fishing here on Linville Lake Oh, yeah.

Gorgeous morning.

You know, you fish out of a kayak quite a bit.

And I was told that you catch hybrid striped bass here on Linville Lake out of your kayak.

I absolutely I've had a troll for em.

I've caught some of chicken livers, but recently I've been trolling for out to kayak, and I've had phenomenal days.

Hybrid can get really big and Linville even though a it's Small Lake has a good population of hybrid striped bass that are stocked.

So, I mean, this kayak is really set up for this.

Now, you you actually have a drive system on yours.

A troll motor.

Yeah.

Our power source is a little different today.

Mine's Gatorade and Snickers bars.

Your's is a lithium battery with a Minni Kota and I might need some Bengay before the day.

is over.

Mine is easy way out but you know, there's this going to be a lot of fun.

So we're going to ease up this bank Let's go see if we can't locate a fish and maybe get hooked up.

All right.

Yes, sir.

All right.

We'll follow you.

All right.

Maybe way behind you.

We'll we'll see.

All right.

We'll see.

Here we go.

Fish on.

Does it feel like a pretty good fish?

I don't think it's a giant Sometimes you never know about these fish.

I'll tell you what though?

He's got that rod bent over it.

A small one.

So that fish probably, what, eight inches?

Yeah, something like that.

Next year, about this time, it could be 14 inches.

Oh, yeah.

But you know what?

When you're trolling these fish still hit so hard, it had your rod bent over.

Yeah, well, that's a good start.

Yep.

Good start.

That's promising.

That is promising.

Look at them.

All the marks No, I believe I got one I believe, Got a fish.

Think so is that a little bass.

Yeah, it looks like a spotted bass.

Sure does.

Not exactly what you're after, but.

Hey, no, nothing wrong with an accidental catch, especially with kayak fishing.

Right?

It's always a plus in kayak aint it?

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

Pretty fish.

There you go.

It;s supposed to be 80 degrees today.

Yeah.

Are those hybrids that may be hybrids hitting top in the jumps?

Yeah, sure.

Is.

We may have to go over and try to hit those.

That's where we turn.

We'll go that way.

Here we go.

I'll tell you what.

This is not a very big hybrid, but there's still a tussle in a kayak.

Oh, yeah.

That's the fun part about it.

Oh, yeah, that's good.

Look there what's that about 14 inches?

Looks like a 14 incher right there.

Yeah, it sure is.

Yeah.

Now, the crazy thing about these is that that fish right there could be a year and a half old.

That's how fast they grow.

Yeah.

It's just amazing.

And that's why they're put in here.

They're pretty voracious eaters.

Yeah.

They have fast growth rates.

They're fun as they can be the catch, and they're really good.

Really good.

You want take couple of these home?

Yeah, I got a bait bag right there with ice in it.

All right.

And on the front.

And you know what?

They're put in here to eat because they're really, really good.

They serve a purpose and help in reducing your shad population.

And they're really, really good.

And they're really great to eat.

Now, pretty much down in there, Awesome.

Now they're coming up out here.

Now, this is we came down here planning on trolling, but we didn't realize they were going to be in a jumps, coming up in the jumps like this.

That's right.

Well, that's good fish there.

This is what it's about right here.

That is right there.

If I don't put a smile on your face, you don't like the fish.

You don't like the fish.

That's right.

That's a good fish.

Yeah.

That's what it's all about.

Now, the next best thing.

Taking it home and eating it.

There you go.

Yeah.

That's the resource.

He's got one.

Oh, yeah.

There you go.

There you go.

We saw some jumps.

Came out here and quickly caught a couple.

Looks like they've gone back down.

You think we should troll out here where we last saw the fish or go back to the bank?

I'm seeing some activity kind of up there a little bit.

All right, we just kind of troll round out in this deeper water and see what we get up because they are still here.

They're just went down a little bit, and that's typical when the sun gets up higher typically happens.

But that doesn't mean the fish are gone.

They're here, and they're probably still feeding.

They're just down deeper.

They're down deeper.

Yeah, well, I'll tell you what.

You start a path and I'll jump in right behind you.

Ok.

Here we go.

Fish on Man, he hit that bait and actually missed it and then came back and hit it again.

This is a much smaller fish.

Not even sure it's a hybrid.

But he's aggressive.

There we go.

Nice beautiful fish, and man.

He just inhaled that bait.

Literally.

It's gone.

We're out here in the middle.

We were trolling the banks we were throwing eight ounce bait.

Now, right here, deeper into fish and a little bit deeper.

So I moved up to a quarter ounce head.

So I'm getting a little bit deeper trolling.

A hair slower in the first hundred yards.

Picked one up.

So perfect.

Well, Bob, that sun's up now.

Oh, boy.

But, I'll tell you what.

I can't think of a better way to spend a summer morning.

I mean, to get out here.

We even saw fish in the jumps I caught a couple of trolling.

Yeah.

What other bodies of water have you had this kayak and tried this approach to catch hybrids?

I went to Dix River and been down in there, caught some hybrids out of Dix River.

Okay.

Anywhere where there's hybrid at, I would like to go and try this, you know?

Yeah.

Any.

That's that information, you know, just knowing where they're at.

Yeah, I would like to try that technique, because it just.

It's so much fun.

I'm sure this would work really good at Guist Creek and Harrington.

Yep.

Rough River.

Barren River Lake, you know, there's a lot of locations where hybrids are stock right here in the state of Kentucky that I'm sure.

I mean, a minnow looks like a minnow.

And they're voracious eaters.

I'm sure they'd eat it.

Oh, yeah.

I'll tell you what.

That is a nice, nice rig.

Thank you very much.

I absolutely had a good time out here with you guys.

I mean, I got a 21 foot bass boat, but I'll tell you, you've got live well and cooler.

Yeah.

Patrol motor and batteries, lights, electronics.

So you got more stuff on this than I got on my bass boat.

your net.

All your tackle all my tackle.

Comfortable seat.

that you.

I'll tell you what no one said ever said.

Kayak fishing had to be uncomfortable, right?

You know what?

Work around, play with your gear, see what works for you.

Yeah.

And you can you can start out as little as you want and work your way up just keep it as simple as you want to.

Yeah.

This has been fun time.

Great meeting you.

And, hey, we'll have to do this again some time.

Absolutely.

Thank you all.

Well Joe, summer is here, and it's getting hot outside, and people are spending more time outdoors.

If you're in a situation where you want to see more wildlife on your property, more habitat.

Right.

Habitat is the biggest limiting factor.

Habitat and food source.

And unfortunately, as nice as people want to think that their yard looks this doesn't provide any of that, does it?

Mow less, you know, there's things you can do to improve the components of habitat.

And then there are simple things that you can do just by simply mowing less.

And gas is really expensive.

Gas is really expensive.

Unless it's an area that you're using, you want a place to throw a ball with the kids and you kind of get that.

But if you want to see more wildlife, put the mower up for a couple of months at a time and see what you get.

You might be surprised.

That's absolutely the truth.

And a tall, weedy field has lots of value.

Not just from wildlife, but pollinators, lots of insects.

You know, we're looking at, you know, the monarch butterfly potentially being listed as an endangered species, you know, allowing milkweeds and other nectar sources to grow, you know, is going to provide great habitat for them as well.

We're not talking about people's neighborhoods and their houses, I tell people to quit it, quit mowing their front yards.

That's not what this is about.

But if you own a little more property, this is what it takes, right?

Yes.

Right now, we're in the middle of June.

It's peak of fawn drop.

They don't move for the first six or 8 hours.

They lay in one place.

Those guys get chopped up by a mower.

When you're talking about eggs for birds and baby rabbits and quail and deer, it happens.

It happens every time.

If you run a mower very much, you're going to see you're going to see it.

It's definitely happening here.

You've got cover you got some shade.

You know, if you're a nest of quail, young chicks just hatching.

If you're out here in this open, you're subject to predation.

You're subject to the elements whether that be rain or sun in here, you've got some shade, you've got a temperature gradient, you get moisture on the ground and you've got insects to feed on.

So once they start moving and foraging, you know, there's lots of good stuff for them.

I appreciate you coming out and telling us today a little bit about how quickly you may see the benefits of not mowing versus mowing, not only in your pocketbook, not only in your time, but also in the amount of wildlife you get to see.

That's a fact.

In June, when the temperatures start getting hot, the bass fishing can get tough unless you decide to go out at night and throw a spinner bait Well, Joe, you and I are out here tonight on beautiful Lake Cumberland doing one of our favorite things to do.

That's bass fishing.

Tonight.

So it's June.

The water temperatures are getting up, you know, where you see people swimming and sking, bass have already spawned out.

How do you like to catch fish this time of year?

My favorite thing to throw a night in June is the spirit bait OK, would you say spirit baiter, there is a million different styles of spinner bait?

These are short arm spinner bags right?

Yeah, with a Colorado blade.

And I'm also going to be throwing one of these too.

Now, we obviously have no idea what the fish are going to start biting on.

We got a couple of different things that we're going to try.

You know, a first thing a person may say.

And if they don't if they're not a night fisherman when they look at these bases, man, a lot of dark color.

All right.

It's not intuitive to throw really dark colors at night, but that's what the fish hit isn't it?

Right, as seems like the darker the night, the darker the bait you want to throw.

We're going to throw a little hair, jigs a biffle head you know, you put some form of a creature bait on here.

Again, really dark colors and also texas rig soft plastics can work really well, too.

Yeah.

Brush hogs, worms, all of it can work.

It's really what you got confidence in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's what I like about June night fishing.

It seems like they're a little bit more aggressive, and you can kind of throw a lot of different things, you know, as the summer gets going and August comes around, they kind of get deeper and more picky.

So that's why it's my favorite time is June.

Well i'll tell you what, Let's find us our first point and go give it a try.

All right, all good.

One tool in the box right there.

We're setting in thirty-eight feet.

We're fishing really in the 12 to 20 range, right?

Yeah.

I would kind of want to say out around 30.

I mean, you know, some points come out further, so you don't have to quite be out being 30.

Look at that shooting star.

When we get along, you'll see many like that.

Now, normally about time you go check that out.

It it's gone.

That's the North Star.

South Star just we saw it just go by and a the glory There we go.

Got one?

Good one?

You might wanna grab the net.

I bet he's a small mouth because he's jumping.

He's burning some drag might not be There you go.

That's a way you get started.

Not even not even dark yet.

And it ain't look, not a real big fish.

But, you know, we'll take it.

That's right.

I'm still throwing that bug because it's not completely dark when we go that spinner bait here in a minute.

So this told us something, though.

We know they're pulling and generating a lot of water between now and midnight, and this is about as sharp as a point is going to get.

So that fish was right there on the point.

So we learn a little bit before it even got dark.

There we go.

We got here this thing close to the bank.

We got there a little small mouth, is it a small mouth?

and it's a spot.

So this is a spot.

That joker right on the bank just annihilated that on the fal That's a pretty healthy fish.

Yeah it is.

I'll tell you what, this is.

Probably the prettiest bass of all the black bass species.

Oh, I love the color in them.

I mean, the white and the stripe, they are pretty So, yeah, it's a smaller well, you're a bit of a small mouth snob like me, but I'll tell you, these things are they're so fun.

Fun to catch What do you know What you got there?

It's a little small mouth.

I knew there'd be a monster on that spot right there.

That actually is a spot, is it?

I can't see it, but yeah, those things are so, so aggressive.

They're real aggressive but sometimes they like the toyle the bait you know, like just keep hitting it and just, like, not really eat it.

They're just try and tell you.

Hey, I'm boss.

Yeah, say one thing about you and your family.

You guys definitely hang out together and fish together.

Uh huh.

I've been at Earl's place a couple of times.

It'll be the dead middle of winter, and everybody in the family's there and all of their fishing.

Yeah, it's one of our favorite time to fish.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

No, the winner your household will be.

Yeah.

Everybody's getting in a boat and going fishing.

It's kind of cool.

you know who loves to night fish is my dad.

Oh, really?

Yeah, my dad, he loves it.

He's like, you saw, and now he's moving down here.

I got to come over and fish some of the Saturday night tournaments within another star point.

I didn't know he liked fishing.

So much fish nighttime and stuff.

He loves it.

That's the one thing he said is that he loves VFL and stuff, he's glad I got into.

But they said, you know, this is fishing at night with me hanging out on the water.

I'm sure it keeps you guys really, really, really close.

Yes.

We actually all fish the AFL Series too, together.

So me, my dad, my brother Nick and my brother Andrew you know, we got a lot of friends like Adam and Brett and four other guys.

We travel together and we all made the regional last year, all of us.

No, that's cool.

Yeah, it was cool.

Yeah, yeah.

There this was a little better.

Yeah, we got about 18. inch smallie?

really close.

So here is probably 18 it's not a bad fish.

Well, you know, if you're a bass fisherman and, and you're in the middle of the summer, June, July, August, and you're sick of the traffic, you want to try to beat the heat.

This is when you get out it.

It's a little it's a lot of fun.

Now, I want to listen to one of those on there.

Obviously, he wanted to check that.

Absolutely.

Engulf that thing.

There you go.

What a pretty fish.

19 inches it may be the middle of summer and hot right now, but September one, the beginning of dove season will be here before you know it.

Here we go.

We got one down right there.

Dove number one.

There's more work than it was supposed to be.

Got all this nice cut corn.

Easy to find him.

First one to shoot lands in the standing corn.

That's how it goes.

Here we go.

That would be easier to retrieve.

so I'm here with Bruce Langley.

Bruce, you farm all over the state of Kentucky, but this is one of the fields that you've already cut for corn.

Yeah.

we chopped this field for silage.

So it'll be feed for cattle.

Well, this is a perfect situation because you actually we can't see it, but right over there, you have a field that you actually planted to dove hunt on.

Oh, yeah.

There's a sunflower field is about 300 yards that way.

Other side of the creek.

So my job today and your job is kind of keep these doves up so they don't land in this cornfield.

Give those guys a really, really good hunt and in turn we should get a good hunt out of it our selves.

Here Chad.

Take him Bruce.

There you go.

Good shot.

That works.

That bird wanted to be on camera.

Nice shot.

Yes, sir.

I know.

That's the great thing about dove hunting.

It requires a shotgun and a minimal amount of gear by your hunting license, your migratory bird permit, and fill out your hip survey.

And you can come out here and have a blast and you can sit here and talk to somebody and not have to whisper.

And and it's usually good weather, you know, good temperatures.

You're not freezing.

So it's it's a good time is a lot of fun.

Hey and they're hard to beat on the grill.

Oh, man.

Wrap those dudes in some bacon.

Well, I'm already seeing tons of birds and it's still early in the afternoon.

I have a feeling that today is going to be a lot of fun.

I hope so.

Good shot.

Thank you.

Oh, you got him.

Here we go.

I don't know who got that one.

I don't know either.

I ended up being the one I switched over to right here.

I don't know who got him, but we.

He's done.

He's down we talked about it out in the field yesterday.

It is important to give the field a break, have a good shut off time.

Yeah.

And if we stay out here till 7:00 and they can't come in and feed that, you know, you're just hurting yourself.

So you do need to give us some time to come in and.

And that's why a lot of our public fields, they'll hunt a day or two and then they'll be off limits for a couple of days.

Bruce, tell me what is it that you like about this the most?

I think it's just the camaraderie before and after.

And, you know, I mean, you're sitting here, we're hunting and we're talking and we're having a successful hunt.

Oh, yeah.

Ice weather, a lot of action, a lot of birds coming in on top of you, a lot of shooting.

There's not too many things you can do.

And you can yell at your buddy from across the field and tell him there's a bird coming.

You know, you can Derek.

It's just a different style.

You know, September 1st is kind of the hunting season.

I don't know.

I like everything about it, really.

That Joker was on top of us.

This right here.

Maybe be the dumbest bird in this county it tried to land on that wire right above.

Maybe he just been there so many times?

He's like, hey, they can't hit me.

You know what?

It's pretty nice because we got ten birds between us.

And we've had zero non recovery.

Yeah.

Allow these birds to make sure they clear the corn right here.

Well we both shot, someone got him.

So Bruce says he likes to employ a strategy where he likes to quit shooting and seven so we birds have a chance to feed so in Bruce's field the early bird in the afternoon the early bird doesn't get the worm early bird gets the lead well, we walked up here, took some higher ground needed two more birds to make a limit and looks like we've limited out what a great love hunt.

Every year I get out here and do this, I always tell myself, why do I always hunt the first weekend of dove season and then quit?

But for today, the great hunt got my limit and it's time to go to the barn for some fellowship.

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 the smiling seven year old Hazel, Young's face.

She caught her very first crappie at Cave Run Lake.

Nice job.

Here we have Mackenzie Howard of Preston Kentucky with a nice large mouth bass.

She said her and her two year old brother love watching Kentucky Afield.

Well, thank you.

Here we have 11 year old Graham Schmidt of Jefferson County who caught this nice freshwater drum while fishing.

at Rough River Lake.

Check out this nice large mouth bass caught by Payton Fox.

This fish was cut out of a private farm pond.

Nice fish.

Here we have Liam Burton with a trout that he caught at the catch a rainbow fishing derby.

Here we have Riley Byrnes with her first fish of the year, a nice bluegill that was caught in a private lake.

In Kenton County, Kentucky.

Nice job.

Summer is now in full swing, and next weekend is the 4th of July.

If you plan on getting out on the water, make sure you're safe and wear a life jacket 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.