This week on Kentucky Afield, we are pondside with Rachel Crume hunting frogs and learning about the state's R-3 programs.

Next, wild pigs are one species that we simply do not want in the bluegrass We'll find out how to keep them at bay.

Then, these hot summer months are perfect for wade fishing a creek.

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.

Well, this summer are you trying to decide if you want to go hunting or fishing?

Well, maybe you should try a frog gigging or shooting them with an air rifle and experience the best of both worlds.

We're out here today with a very familiar face today and we're in Shelby County getting ready to do one of my all time favorite activities.

And that's gigging or shooting frogs.

Yeah, I'm so excited.

I can't wait.

It's so much fun.

I know you've done this a lot and you've taken kids out, shooting, gigging frogs.

What a great way to introduce someone to the outdoors.

It is a lot of fun.

It's something great to do in the summer.

Yeah.

So if kids are out.

The weather's great.

Yeah, everything's wonderful.

We're going to have so much fun.

It is a lot of fun.

You know, there's a lot of ways you can do this.

You can do it on a rod and reel, you can do it with a gig.

You can do it with a rifle.

You can shoot them with a bow.

Tonight, I brought a couple air rifles, and you?

Brought gigs.

I've never done anything but gig frogs.

OK. Well, I take that back.

I've caught a couple with my hands, but I've never shot one with a gun before, so we're going to try that tonight.

I'm super pumped about that.

You mentor so many people and get them involved in the outdoors.

You actually took my daughter on her first deer hunt.

It was a blast.

So much fun.

She still talks about it all the time.

You're passion and love for the outdoors and mentoring really transitioned perfectly for you because recently you started a new position with the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

You're now Department Fish Wildlife Employee.

Yep.

And you're heading up our R-3 program, which tell me what R-3 is.

So R-3 is recruitment, retention and reactivation so if you've never hunted or fished before, we're going to try and introduce it to you if you're doing it.

We just want to make sure that you come back and maybe if you left for a while or haven't done in a few years, we want to get you back into it and show you how much fun it is, how it's a great hobby to have.

And hopefully we'll get some frog legs so we can eat some later, too.

And if you never had frog legs, this ranks right up there at one of my absolute favorite things to eat, we got about 20 minutes till it's going to be dark enough to kind of start making our way around.

With those air rifles, you can sometimes start shooting them before it's completely dark and you don't even really have to spotlight them.

So let's go get our gear.

It's going to be fun.

Let's get after them.

This is going to be a blast.

Yeah.

Well Rachel, we got way too much gear.

I brought this little net, probably wondering what in the world?

Is he just going to hand grab frogs?

and I may grab a frog, but this is actually if we shoot one that's out in the water just a little ways.

Well, I'm super excited about trying to shoot one, so I think we should try that first.

All right.

Hey, that sounds good.

Listen, you hear them?

all right, let's get down here and take a look and see if we can't get you loaded up.

we're going to try to score your first frog with air rifle right off the bat.

OK. We're just going to leave these right here for now and let's walk down and take a look.

sounds good.

Oh, yeah, yeah you can see all their eyes.

That's a good frog.

Rachel, why don't you go ahead and get loaded up.

OK.

I probably need to sneak up a tiny bit closer with this gun.

oh, wrong way.

I don't know why its not pulling.

Maybe i didn't cock it all the way.

Oh!

that's all right.

He'll be back up here.

I didn't cock the pellet rifle all the way.

And I think that frog would have been close enough for me to gig.

That's OK.

There'll be more.

Get ready, cause we're getting ready to see some biggins.

I think, like, right in here by this big pipe, chad, there should be a few sitting up here.

Well rachel, there's one right there.

But I believe that one's a hair small.

That'll be next year's frog what do you think?

Yeah.

Let's go on around, see if we can't find another one.

That one looks a little bigger.

It's not a big frog, but it might be good for your first one with an air rifle.

I think this distance is probabl Oh, that's a good shot.

This is what the net's for right here.

I'll tell you one thing.

Those air rifles will flat stone them.

That's crazy.

Frog number one.

Heck yeah.

You know what?

You get 15.

I get 15.

Let's try to get another one.

OK.

I missed him.

got him.

didn't hit him where I wanted to they'll pellet gun still took him down that's a better frog.

Oh it actually went in right where I was aiming but it came out here.

Look you think that doesn't do a number on them?

It's really perfect for frogs, those their rifles are.

let's get loaded up again.

Try to get us another one.

I'll tell you one thing, the worst mistake you could ever make is take one of these air rifles and go, "oh, it's a BB gun.

They don't have to be safe with them.

Yeah.

I would hate to get shot with one of these.

it could be really, really, really bad news.

Absolutely.

You got to treat these just like a regular firearm.

They for sure are.

You smoked him.

Oh, Rachel, right there.

OK, you want to shine or shoot?

You're up.

I'll shine, you shoot.

Let me make my way up here this way just a little bit.

Ready?

Yeah.

All right.

He's down.

We got another one right here.

Nice job, Rachel.

Laying right there.

Thank you.

Look at that one.

Look at the white belly on that joker right there, Rachel.

That's our chicken from earlier.

That is.

I'll hold that light.

OK, You want this light here?

Yeah.

nice shot, Chad.

It wasn't as big as I thought but we're going to take it.

Yeah, he'll eat.

I've had good frog legs at restaurants.

They don't compare.

No, not even close.

When you go get fresh caught frog legs instead of farm raised, there's something about them they're just different.

Yeah, for sure.

Alright guys, that frog's hit and he's not too deep to still get there we go.

Heck yeah.

Good frog ight there.

that'll eat.

Oh, there's a big one in the water.

Was I high on that?

You know, I don't know, but that frog is going to come back and we're going to get that frog here in just a minute.

He's on the bank now.

Do I need to shoot him again?

Yep.

Did I hit him or?

is he swimming?

He's going to come right back up to this bank.

We got a blood trail.

I've never seen a frog.

Get away and leave a puddle like that.

I know.

It's crazy.

that frog is coming back to the bank.

I don't believe it needs another pellet.

We're just going to go up there and try to stick this net on it.

Got him.

Good job.

Well, did you see that?

Did he get out of there?

He snuck out the side.

Dang it.

Oh, there were two frogs.

Ah, we got it.

OK, here we go.

This is that big one that we shot earlier.

Heck yeah.

That's a good frog right there.

Look at that, shot on his head right here.

Yeah, that's a good shot, though.

That's a great big frog.

That's a good one.

That's a really good frog.

Heck yeah.

He's going to eat good.

Hey, Rachel, we got a couple more ponds, so let's go regroup and I think I'm going to leave the scoped air rifle.

We'll take the other rifle you got there.

We'll lighten the load a little bit.

Maybe we'll carry the gigs next time around.

Yeah, we'll see if we can gig a couple.

Let's go make it happen.

Sounds good.

I think you may have him.

Got him.

What do you think, Rach', can you make that shot?

I'm going to try.

oh!

good shooting, Chad.

got him.

Nice job, Rachel.

Look at that.

That's a good frog.

Well i think you got him.

Yes, that's a good job right there.

It's not easy to get to those cattails like that.

This is so fun.

Oh, there's a big one.

Good job.

We got him.

Yeah.

I can't hardly see oh, yeah.

There we go.

Good job, buddy.

Nice.

Oh, you smoked him.

Well Rach', It's been great.

I really do appreciate it.

Hey, for someone who wanted to know more about R-3 and how to get involved and how to reach out and learn a little more about the outdoors, what's the best way for them to do that?

Go to the website fw.ky.gov and then if you click on the education tab, you'll find a "learn to hunt, fish and shoot" tab.

That's your best place to start.

So there they'll take you to like our hook and cook classes or field to fork.

We've also started putting together basic "learn to hunt" and fish information on our website too.

I'll tell you what, tonight was a perfect basic learn-how-to gather frogs.

Yeah.

And you know what?

We got a skillet full of goodness right here.

Yes, we do.

I can't wait.

hopefully this fall, no Kentucky hunters encounter any wild pigs.

But if you do, you want to make sure you call the Department of Fish and Wildlife so we can add your county or your area to our pig eradication plan.

So, Terry, we're out here in Henry County again, pretty close to a location where you trapped pigs a few years ago and showed us some of your eradication efforts.

Give me an update on how the pigs are doing here in the state of Kentucky.

Well, we've had a lot of success in Kentucky.

Pigs are at the lowest numbers they've been in the last decade.

We've got an aggressive eradication campaign in partnership with Wildlife Services.

To have a trapping effort, you have to get a phone call first.

And these phone calls are not coming from the people that a lot of people would expect it to be.

These are hunters and landowners that are saying, man, having pigs on my property is no good.

So, Mark, wild pigs and corn growing do not go hand in hand.

That doesn't work well, no.

A lot of damage really quick.

So tell me a little bit about what you've experienced with wild pigs here in Henry County.

We had a problem.

It was down the river.

They started coming in and didn't really know at first what it was.

And then it got to get worse and worse.

You're talking about just literally- they just actually come in, knock the stalks down and just knock the corn off.

It looks like a bush hog went over it when they come in.

And before we started catching some of them, they were getting like a half acre a night.

Just one group.

They were just cleaning the fields.

And they really mess up hunting opportunities as well.

Wild pigs displace our native wildlife species, they displace deer and turkey.

They outcompete them for food sources, especially acorns.

You think you're going to hunt near a white oak tree and have a successful hunt and then all you see are pigs.

for a corn producer Did you have a piece of property that were either total losses or you just said, hey, I'm not going to raise corn there anymore?

We didn't have total losses, but it was starting to get to that point.

And then that's when we contacted the Fish and Wildlife to come in.

We'll do a landowner visit, we'll look for damage, and we'll set cameras and bait up in the areas where there's sign and monitor the situation.

And if we can get pigs on bait, then we'll set a trap.

We used to have traps that had trip wires and rooting sticks, and they were- would catch maybe half of the group of pigs.

Pigs live in Sounders.

So what we'll do is we'll try to catch that entire sounder we're not really exactly sure how pigs hit the landscape, but we think people brought them in for hunting opportunities.

You know, they're not that easy to hunt.

And if you go out, you shoot a couple of these pigs, they get smart fast.

That's what I was told.

In fact, I was told that Fish and Wildlife don't shoot them, don't scare them, let them come in and let them catch them in the traps you just said the most important thing is don't shoot, call, because you really want to get a trap out that you can remotely trigger.

And that's how we've caught the last group of pigs that we think we've got here in the landscape in Henry County, were caught using a remote trap, and that's really the way to do it.

Terry we've come in here today and this has been a huge success for us.

We've captured what may be one of the last remaining sounder groups in Henry County right now, we're getting ready to test more for diseases wild pigs carry swine brucellosis and pseudo rabies.

And they are not found in domestic swine in the state.

And we're trying to keep that from happening.

So we're going to test the blood samples for those diseases.

So Dax is going to be doing a heart stick to draw blood.

Notice, we do have PPE on, latex gloves and glasses to protect ourselves from diseases I typically take four vials of blood and spin those down to eight cryo vials.

We've been in Henry County now for, what, five years?

Four or five years?

Yeah, it's a- it's actually been a really rewarding experience here to realize we've made a huge difference for the landowners, people with crops and soybeans and corn who were having trouble with the pigs just destroying their property.

So, Mike, you're a farmer here in Henry County.

Yes.

What is some of the worst damage you've seen?

back in 2016 they wiped probably 80% of a field out over there overnight, like probably 15 pigs in there eating.

You've also seen damage to some of your neighbors in their yard.

They just root their yards up too.

You've seen that as well, right?

Yes.

They just took like a big strip in our yard and just I mean, just like you plowed it or something It's estimated that swine in the United States creates almost $2 billion worth of damage to crops and property.

This is exciting.

Thinking.

We've got the last sounder thinking that we've eradicated the largest population of pigs in Kentucky.

A lot of sleepless nights, but then well worth the effort.

And again, rewarding to know that we're helping people in the county.

So we also do DNA or genetic sampling on these pigs.

And it's to get a database to to hopefully figure out where these pigs are coming from and what strain of pig or what genetics they come from.

These pigs may come from North Carolina, they may come from Tennessee.

And we're taking these samples to kind of figure that out.

These boars like we have here, they typically will roam for miles looking for sows to breed with.

They cover a lot of ground and are really hard to track.

These traps have been really successful in getting rid of all these pigs.

Trap's reset so that's it.

Our trap is set.

Tell me about why you chose this particular location.

Typically, if you can find a wallow, you can put out some corn and you'll find the pigs, now that you've got it set you're back out of here and you'll watch this thing for a few days, and what happens if a couple of pigs come in?

I've got a camera up here in the tree it's motion sensored, a pig will go into the trap.

My camera will sense that pig and take a picture.

And then that picture is then relayed to my phone.

So I text my camera to drop the door and- bam, you drop the gate and you know you've them.

once they're in there, they'll finish up their feeding and pretty much be there whenever you get here.

That's right.

They'll be here waiting.

It's high tech, but it's the way to go.

I mean, it's been a true success story.

Are you looking for an online location to go acquire information or share information about fishing locally here in Kentucky?

Well, I've got the place for you.

You need to go check out FKLRC.

That's "Fishing Kentucky Lakes, Rivers and Creeks" well Adam, this is kind of your cup of tea right here.

Yeah, man, I love creek fishing.

Yeah.

We got so many creeks like this throughout the state of Kentucky that have got tons of fish in them.

And this one here is one of my favorite good looking spot that's for sure.

Well Adam, I think we'll just drop our gear right here.

Sounds good man.

You know, this is a this is a typical creek or stream that can be found anywhere in the state of Kentucky.

And you have kind of started a way for people to find locations like this, share techniques throughout the state of Kentucky.

Tell me a little bit about it.

I start it up, It's called FKLRC, stands for Fishing in Kentucky lakes, rivers and Creeks.

I started that back in 2014 just to kind of try to bring together the state of Kentucky fishing community.

How many members you have now?

Gaining up on 22,000.

So 22,000 people, people from every county.

Every county all over the state.

So if you really want to get into fishing and you're just not sure where you want to go or you need a little bit of help.

But if you're involved in social media, you can find you on Facebook, right?

That's right.

And what do they need to search for to get it?

Just type in FKLRC on Facebook search.

It'll take you right to it.

All right.

Let's get after it.

Let's do it, man.

All the way in, fully submerged, wade fishing.

Aint nothing better than getting out in this cold water.

Man, I tell you what, you get out here in the middle of the summertime and it's 90 degrees outside getting in this water waist deep.

There's nothing more refreshing.

what do you think fish number one is going to be?

You bust one?

I don't know what I got here.

Small mouth.

Nice.

It's a little joker, but we'll take it.

I'll tell you, this stream not too far away runs into the Kentucky River, and these small mouth can run to, like this Joker, eight inches all the way up to- I have seen them over four pounds caught right here you know Adam even though you've started and moderate a Facebook page all about fishing Kentucky I bet you have learned some really cool new fishing holes just by being a member of the site, haven't you?

I have man, I've learned some some new spots, learned a lot of good techniques and tips, made some good friends off of it.

Pretty awesome.

Just be able to get in contact with everybody around the state.

Telling you what it's getting deep, deep.

Yeah.

I almost think that we may need to take a look at that next hole up one black bass species away from catching the trifecta that's right man he thinks he's king of this creek in a couple of years he might be right here we go.

Yeah.

What's that?

Smalley?

Old Smalley.

There you go.

Isn't that crazy?

you fish the deep pockets, you think the fish are going to be right here for sure.

Lo and behold, you move up in real, super shallow water, and that's where they're at.

It's a nice, pretty fish.

What have I got here?

Lord have mercy.

I don't know what this is.

Come off right there.

Did you see that?

I saw it, man.

I don't know what that was.

That's crazy.

Whatever it was, it was big.

You know, creek fishing is all about setting your expectations.

I mean, there are some big fish in here.

It's really about just going out and enjoying yourself and just kind of setting your expectations.

That's what it's all about, man.

It's going out and having a good time.

So even if you come out here and get skunked man it's awesome to get out here being lucky enough to catch a couple of fish is just bonus.

That's right.

Here we go.

Oh, a little smallie.

I wondered if it was his great granddaddy that took me for a ride while ago.

Could've been.

It wasn't you.

Man, for someone that thinks I want to get into fishing, going online and finding out some different techniques and some different species of fish for locally is a really good way to do it.

And then finding some techniques of where to fish.

There's a lot of people out there willing to help you.

I mean, look at this tonight.

Both got off work, came out here, just had an hour or two to jump in a creek and a stream why not?

Don't pass those opportunities up to get out and fish something like this Today, you have to fish, close water.

Yep.

here we go.

Oh, look at that.

Hey, that is beautiful.

Oh, I love when those small mout Lookie there.

Very nice, man.

What a pretty fish.

This is a respectable fish.

You're talking about a 13, 14 inch fish, strong fighting current fish.

Probably made its way from the Kentucky River ran up in here because there's so much bait.

Good looking fish, man.

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 Dorothy Goodall of Shelbyville, Kentucky with this nice crappie that she caught at Taylorsville Lake.

Nice job here we have two year old Denley Sturgill with a nice bluegill, and she caught this fish while fishing in her grandpa's pond.

Nice job.

Happy 4th of July to all the outdoors men and women here in the state of Kentucky.

Hopefully you found time to get outdoors with your family.

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.

If you are an experienced and licensed angler.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources encourages you to enter the mentor-to-win $1,000 kayak prize package.

Any licensed angler who takes a new angler fishing has a chance to win a Jackson kayak, a brand new paddle, astral 50 and two Abu Garcia spinning combos one for you and one for your newly mentored angler.

Go to fw.ky.gov and search Kayak Giveaway for more details.