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 jump in the boat with a buddy of mine, do a little fishing, and also learn a new knot.

Then we're heading out with the Kentucky Wild Crew as they release the new state amphibian.

The Eastern Hellbender.

But first, we're headed down to Kentucky Lake to jump in the boat with a couple of high school bass anglers who just won the state championship.

This morning I'm here at Kentucky Lake with the 2026 high school Bass Fishing Champions.

Cody, it's Muhlenberg County again.

This is your fourth year in a row.

Yeah.

Just another incredible year, man.

Every year is different.

This year I know you guys had new challenges.

Of course it's a new team.

You're always competing against the fish, which that's always different.

It's different every day.

It's a two day tournament.

You said the fishing was totally different day one to day two this year.

Every year is different.

We got a couple of juniors this year.

It's just interesting and it just makes it fun to be able to go out and teach these kids a new opportunity, a new way of fishing.

You see them right here lined up.

All right, I will hop out your way and let you guys get busy.

So tell me, what got you into fishing?

I really got into fishing fishing with my granddad.

And just in farm ponds.

Just around the house.

Okay.

And then freshman year, got in the bass boat for the first time and started high school fishing.

Did you ever think you'd be a state champion?

I always dreamed of it as a kid growing up, I wanted to be on the team and then junior year.

Throw straight ahead right there.

Long cast.

There you go.

So tell me, Levi, what got you into bass fishing?

Fishing in my grandfather's pond with a hot dog and a catfishing pole.

And when did you start that?

As a young kid?

Very young.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Taking that to where you're at now.

Fishing for your high school in a boat like this with a coach like Cody.

Did you ever think in a million years that this would all come together so fast?

Absolutely not.

Got one.

There we go.

Oh, yeah.

What a net job.

There you go.

Nice fish, buddy.

There you go.

That's a keeper.

Nice job.

Fish number one.

Just keep shaking it right here to the boat.

Got one.

Oh, fish on.

A little one.

You had that one you were going to boat flip him.

My bad.

I didn't want him to come off.

There you go.

Nice job.

Did you see him come up and eat it?

Yeah, yeah.

Well, there you go.

You're on the board.

Here he comes.

Got it?

There you go.

Throw right here.

Short cast right in front of the boat.

They are fired up.

That's it.

Feel like a pretty good fish?

Little one.

I thought he was better than what he was.

But look at them down there now.

Bunch of them right here underneath the boat.

There you go.

You guys got something working here.

What is it that makes you guys at Muhlenberg County so consistent?

Right at the top.

Definitely putting in time on the water.

Yeah.

A lot of time.

Putting out faith in God, you know, going out, praying before every tournament to keep us safe and hopefully he'll bless us with some fish.

There you go.

What do you like about it the most now?

Really just being out on the water.

Hanging out with the team as just kind of as a family.

Yeah.

Tournament fishing.

Fish on?

Yep.

Fish on.

Good one?

Oh, yeah.

Several of them down there dude.

Stacked down there.

Go around on this side.

Coming in to the right?

Looks like a better fish.

Oh, yeah.

Good one.

Good fish baby.

There you go.

Big smallmouth.

Looky there.

That is the kind of fish you like right there now.

It's the right color and the right size.

We have been so blessed with an amazing community to back us up and to help us and support us.

Above all, I want to give glory to God because, I know I wouldn't be where I am today without him.

And I know he's been a blessing for us and guiding us through this program.

What is it about Coach Cody that you feel like not only is he going to help you guys stay consistent and catch fish, but it's going to help you in the future in all your other endeavors.

I think definitely him just being a man of God.

Just pushing his faith and just really it's going to stick with us through our whole lives.

There you go.

Fish on.

Smallmouth.

Good small mouth, actually.

There you go.

Nice smallie.

Yeah.

I tell you what.

Karson's on the smallies today.

That's about the fourth one you've caught, I think isn█t it?

I think so.

Yeah.

For whatever reason, the right side of the boat, is all small mouth.

The cool thing about both these boys, they caught on early, they're ready to fish.

You know, they go out there and do what they know to do, and they put in the time and effort in the off season to get where they are now, to get to that state championship and win it.

So last year you guys were on the team as well, right?

And you fished in the state championship last year as well?

Yeah.

What place you guys come in last year?

We was 24th.

Yeah.

So 24th.

You went from 24th last year to state champions.

And not only did you guys win, you won by a pretty significant margin.

About 6 pounds right?

Yeah.

So how did you guys catch fish throughout the tournament.

Really just staying consistent.

You got to stay levelheaded, especially between 2 days.

Because that first day we were sitting in second.

And you just had to stay consistent and not worry about anything at all.

Are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me?

Dude!

Oh my gosh, what a largemouth!

I never would have dreamed that!

Oh my gosh dude!

Oh my gosh, what a smallmouth!

What a smallmouth dude!

Right under the boat.

It was right under the boat.

Look how big that smallmouth is dude.

Oh my gosh what a small mouth.

Are you kidding me?

Are you freaking kidding me?

Dude, it's a tank!

Oh.

Oh, it's a large mouth.

That's a good one.

Look what I did here.

Cody, look what I did to your net.

Oh, it come out, slip out.

That's all right.

That's a good fish right there, man.

Got one?

Yeah.

Small mouth.

Big smallmouth.

Nice fish.

Got him?

White bass.

The old white bass.

Now, how many do you have on your team now?

We have around 20, 14-15 boys.

And we've got about five girls that fished this last year.

And the sport has grown both the boys and girls side.

And it seems like more for the girls here lately.

And that's my hope that we continue to grow the girls side.

And we're excited about that.

There you go.

Do you guys plan on being a part of this program once you graduate and move on?

Oh yeah.

I'll definitely give back to the team when I graduate and then I plan on going to college at Murray State and go fish for their bass fishing team.

Oh, fantastic.

What about yourself?

Yeah, absolutely.

I█d love to boat captain some high school kids whenever I graduate.

Well, you guys are a part of something special.

And something tells me that it's not going to end anytime soon.

Muhlenberg County is here to stay.

And you got a super strong program with such a great coach.

Hundred percent.

Absolutely.

Finally.

Finally caught one on the jig.

Oh.

Boat flipped him.

Nice!

If you throw braided fishing line, you probably attach it to a fluorocarbon leader.

And this is the knot you need to learn.

Well.

I am super excited to be hitting the water today.

Today's fishing trip, like most fishing trips a lot of times starts right here and that is the planning stage of the fishing trip right now.

So I'm kind of thinking about where we're going fishing, what gear and equipment we're going to need, and what type of tackle we're going to be throwing.

Another important thing to consider is fishing line.

And there's a whole host of different types of fishing lines out there, different colors, different pound weights, different materials really.

You got 3 or 4 different materials that the vast majority of the fishing lines are made from, and each one has its own unique reason that you'd want to own it or use it for fishing.

First off, you've got monofilament line.

It's been around forever.

If you've fished a few times in your life that you probably have used monofilament line.

It is absolutely great for pan fishing.

And if you're pulling a bait that's moving through the water where you'd want it to have a little bit of stretch and a little bit of give.

Great for throwing a crankbait, great for throwing something like a spinner bait, something that you want a little bit of give.

A lot of times that's what you use a monofilament line.

It also is pretty forgiving.

Secondly, now you have fluorocarbon.

Fluorocarbon is something that was introduced years ago for saltwater but has become super popular with freshwater fishermen.

Now what's different about a fluorocarbon line?

Fluorocarbon line is almost completely invisible.

It does not absorb any water, and it doesn't hardly stretch.

Fluorocarbon line.

If you go to set the hook, you wear back and you hit one with fluorocarbon line.

It's not hardly stretching.

Very little stretch right to the bait that increases your hook ups, but fluorocarbon can be a little harder to use.

It has a little more memory kinks, a little bit crimps in there.

If you get a knot and try to pick it out, it's not as forgiving.

And then you've got braid braided fishing line.

It's something that most fishermen use some form or fashion, a braid.

And the reason they use it, it is so incredibly strong.

And the pound test, meaning the weight, the load that it will hold for the diameter of the line is really, really, really, really strong.

Meaning you can make a real long cast.

It is abrasion resistance, almost no stretch like fluorocarbon, even more so when you set the hook man they are on there.

So that gives you a lot of things to think about when you go fishing next time to try to decide what's the best fishing line for you.

Or there's an option to use a combination of two.

And that is something that I'm starting to see a whole lot more out in the fishing world.

One of my good fishing buddies uses this technique a lot.

I would consider him an expert at this, and we're going to catch up with him.

We're going to learn a little bit more about this trend of throwing a braided fishing line to a leader, and find out exactly why it works well for him, and find out if it might be something that works well for you as well.

We're out here today at Taylorsville Lake, fishing with my good buddy Bill.

Now, Bill, I've noticed for a couple of years now, a lot of times we've got fishing in most applications.

I see you throw on a braided line to a leader.

Tell me exactly why you do that.

And what type of knot do you like to tie to a join the two lines together.

It took me a while to find the right knot in the right combination.

But it saves you, saves you line it.

The braid can last a year.

Turn it over last another year.

You may go through one quality spool of fluorocarbon, a year.

You can literally flip the bail on this.

Take a new reel, run it in the eyelets and literally reel it off of one reel right on to the next.

And what you've done is you've taken the outside line that you've been casting and throwing.

You've reeled it on to the back of the spool, and now you're casting a line that was on the bottom of the spool.

It's never been used brand new, never been.

So you can literally get two years pretty easily out of a good, good thing.

Braid.

Oh, easy, easy.

And you can use just instead of using multiple spools.

Very costly flourocarbon.

One spool a year or 200 yards can last you a year.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

It's unbelievable.

Plus you don't have the breakage if you were to use straight braid straight braid is not real abrasion resistance.

But with fluorocarbon leaders fluorocarbon is very abrasion resistant.

And you get the same feel probably better feel how the braid fluorocarbon as you would monofilament or straight for carbon.

So you're getting much longer casts much longer much better.

Hooks sets.

Yes.

Let's go ahead and rig a couple up.

Show me exactly how you do this fg knot.

First I start out my braid.

Basically put it around my pinky finger like that, and I take my fluorocarbon and I tie a knot in the end of it because it slips out of my hands.

Oh, I pull up.

So on this side of line, face the side of the fluorocarbon.

What's the face you you go over to?

Over and under one side, over and under the next side.

You can do that 20 times this side.

This just keeps switching sides.

Okay.

And on the sun line sight you can see the line the, the not actually in slow motion.

So I have four wraps right there at five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten I do 23 wraps on that.

So 16 to 20 some low 20s.

And I'll lay the fluorocarbon parallel to the braid.

Take my tag in, put it over away from the body over both lines and just cinch it down.

Cinch it down against my wraps.

Do it a second time in the sun line schematic it says 5 or 6 cinches.

I just do 2.

Okay.

And then I grab my line.

I wet it and I pull it tight.

I want to set the knot.

You said it almost to the breaking point, and you grab your fluorocarbon end right when it comes out of the wraps and cut it as close as possible.

Take your tag in and go over your braid twice like that.

I grab my mouth.

I pull all three lines.

Then I cut my tag in.

I cut it about 1/8 to a 1/4 inch.

Doesn't hurt nothing.

I used to just cut it even.

But there's a little slippage in your knot.

So that little tag and gives you a little buffer, you know, basically it'll slip just so far and that's it.

And it won't bother you.

It'll fray a little bit, but it won't bother the cast any.

How much are you going to go from your connection point?

How much you're going to use?

Okay, I'll bring it all the way about halfway between the last, in the spool.

But right there I've got connection point, and I'll grab the fluorocarbon.

I bring it right below my spool.

My real, and I'll cut it.

And she's ready to go on.

Many of these line manufacturers, they'll recommend different knots on this one.

It actually says the Albright knot.

Now Albright knot works really well.

One of the things I've noticed about the Albright knot is that it has a little thicker knot.

Then the EFG knot that your time.

What does that a little bit thicker not do to you?

The thicker the not the more it's going to hit your guides.

Yeah.

By doing this particular knot you get a little less resistance going through there.

Less resistance.

I mean I have tried all kind of knots.

I've tried the Albright knot.

Whatever you feel is best for you, you tie and you have confidence in is a knot you should use.

This just works for me.

Period.

Well, let's go catch a fish.

Let's do it.

Oh, here he is!

Second that thing hit the water.

You threw it out there?

Yeah.

Son of a gun.

You need a net.

No, he█s little.

White bass.

Now, I'll tell you what.

That thing jumped way out there.

Had to make a real, real long cast.

One thing braids really good for is long cast.

I was able to get the cast right to it.

Man, It smacked it as soon as it hit.

This fish, here is a little small.

We're going to throw this one back, he ain█t quite big enough.

Oh what, you got there?

A small one.

He's real small.

Is that a?

That's a crappie.

You got you a crappie.

Hey.

Yeah.

There you go.

I don't believe it was going to be long enough.

But you know what?

A pretty low crappie.

The white crappie can't beat that 1 or 2 years, right?

Yeah.

That's.

Say you got about 1 or 2.

1 or 2.

Oh, they're they're busted out there.

They're busting.

see them?

Oh, yeah.

They're busting.

There you go.

Oh, there he is.

Yeah, that's a little better the the first one I caught.

He's better.

He's just coming at me.

What you doing that?

Oh, yeah.

He's better fish.

You didn't that.

I think we got a lot of troubles in it.

Yeah.

There you go.

Yeah, there we go.

Got it.

Nice.

It's pretty going there, though.

That's probably 13 14 inch fish.

Yeah, well, Bill, I have to say, I've seen you tie this knot several times and I've seen you catch a lot of fish on it.

It works extremely well, I am convinced.

Yeah Chad, it works for me.

And I hope it works for a lot of the people.

The restoration effort for the Eastern hellbender has been going on here in Kentucky for years, thanks in part to our Kentucky Wild Crew.

Today we're here in Rowan County and I'm here with Zach Couch.

And today is a super special day.

Tell us what we're doing today.

Today we're going to go out and do a release.

It's actually the first time in Kentucky's history that we are releasing Hellbenders back into the wild.

Most outdoors people have never seen a hellbender.

What are we looking for today?

Hellbender is actually our largest species of salamander we have in the state.

They can be over two feet long.

They live in fairly decent sized streams and rivers.

They have to have these really big boulders that they live under.

So that's why most people haven't seen them.

They're actually hidden in plain sight underneath of some of these large boulders in a creek.

So we've spent the last four years going out surveying different streams in Kentucky, trying to see which streams actually still have populations of hellbenders.

And what we've determined is our population in Kentucky is really declining for a lot of different reasons.

So as a result of that, we've started going into the streams where we know that we can find these egg masses.

In the wild, The eggs maybe have 1% chance of survival.

But in the lab we can get 60, 65% survival.

So we worked with Purdue University.

We pulled the egg masses out of the stream.

They raised the hellbenders for 3 or 4 years, and then we get to go back and actually restock some of the streams now that are declining.

So we had a clutch of about 500 eggs from four years ago.

We're keeping 25 of those as sort of our year one reintroduction program in years.

Moving forward, we'll have more and more that will release.

The rest of those animals will actually go to Indiana, and they're doing the same project up there.

But the problem is they haven't found any egg masses in Indiana.

So they're using some of our Kentucky animals to repopulate some streams in Indiana at the same time as we're doing the work here.

So that's one reason why a university in Indiana is very interested in this project and working with us, because they're literally rearing these things and then bringing them back and then also seeding some of them in their state as well.

So both states are actually going to be benefiting.

That's right.

You know, the thing when you're looking at wildlife conservation is, you know, we're focused obviously on Kentucky, but these species are often in multiple states.

And if the species is declining throughout its entire range, we should do what we can, not just to better the population in Kentucky, but throughout the range of the species, so that we have multiple sites to diversify where we can find this animal.

And I hope we keep it off of the endangered species list, which is our ultimate goal here.

They're not here yet.

They're on their way from Purdue.

We're going to be getting 25, right?

That's right.

What are we gonna be looking at size wise?

They're probably going to be somewhere in the range of six, maybe ten inches long, something like that.

So by the time of that, as most fish species, unless it's a muskie, we probably don't have a whole lot of worries there, do they?

Right.

It's not going to be so much fish.

River otters are going to take a few of them.

The main reason that they're declining is actually we have to find a good habitat, not only for adults, but also for those larvae.

And the larvae really need those clean gravel streams to be able to get up in the little areas in the gravel.

And that's where they hide out until they grow to adulthood.

So, Zach, we're saying this is a release and it is a release, but it's kind of a controlled release.

It is.

What we've done is we built these soft enclosures that will actually be able to put the animals in, and it will hopefully contain them on site for a few days.

And the whole idea there is, you know, these animals have been in a lab all their life.

We're putting them out here in the wild.

We don't want them to start moving around too much on day one, and not being able to really figure out what they're doing, and then be easy prey for any predators that move through.

So what Purdue has found in some of the work they've done in Indiana is you put them in the south side of the enclosures in the stream for a couple days.

The hellbenders start to kind of figure out their environment, figure out their surroundings, and then we'll come back in 3 or 4 days, remove that enclosure, and then they can slowly distribute throughout the stream where they need to go.

So once we get the animals here on site, we've got some coolers we'll put them in with some water to make sure that we don't stress them out any more than we have to.

That's fine in there.

Yeah.

They even brought red and blue buckets.

I thought they'd be black and gold buckets.

Impressive.

Right now we're headed down to the creek, and then we'll slowly get to Hellbenders moved down, and we'll bring them out into the stream.

We've already got our soft enclosures set up in a good spot.

Good looking habitat.

We'll have you and whoever else we have here today is volunteers helping us take the hellbenders out of the coolers and slide them into the soft enclosure.

And just from there, it's a hands off process of letting them settle into their new environment.

We will come back here every year and monitor the site.

All the animals that we'll be receiving today have a pit tag in them.

It's the same thing as people having their pet Sometimes.

For the lost pet.

We have those already embedded into the hellbender, so we can go out and actually see which hellbender we catch in the wild, pull it out and be able to use a wand on it to see, okay, this is an animal that released in 2022 that was actually broodstock from 2017.

These could be producing offspring for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.

Yeah, that's the plan is to be able to recover this population to where and let's say ten years from now, we have the population back throughout its historic distribution in the state.

They're reproducing on their own, and we can move on to conserve another species that is declining.

You know, we don't want to do this work forever.

We just want to be able to kind of head- start this population.

This is considered triage This is just enough to keep the population going until we address some of the upstream issues with sedimentation in the stream.

Hey, this is really cool work.

I've done some cool projects.

You really get to do some fun things.

But a hellbender is such a unique animal.

I have spent countless hours flipping rocks and in streams and I have never seen one in the wild.

I've seen them in aquariums and I've seen them in locations like that.

But so today, to get out here and physically get your hands on one and turn one loose into the wild, what a treat.

This is a big day.

Anytime we can take animals from the lab and release them back into the stream to recover a population that's a big win for us.

This is something that we couldn't have done without the membership with our Kentucky Wild program, who actually provided financial support to go out and put our artificial nest boxes out and to do some of the work that we're doing here today.

This is a special day here in Kentucky, not only for conservationists and members of Kentucky Wild, but also our biologists.

So great work.

Thank you.

Now let's check in and see who else has been out having fun.

And this week's ones that didn't get away.

Louisville native Jett Smith headed down to come to the lake to do a little smallmouth fishing, and landed this beautiful smallmouth bass.

Here we have Trish Jump with a nice bass that she caught after a day of watching her grandkids fish in Grant county.

Nice job.

Hunter Cantrell went catfishing in Boyd County and caught this beautiful channel catfish.

Congratulations.

The kids will be headed back to school before you know it.

Make plans now to get outdoors and make some memories.

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.