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 meet up with fisheries biologist and watch them produce the next generation of muskie.

Then we're hitting the field for a rabbit hunt.

But first we're going out with a couple of first time deer hunters using a crossbow.

Well, it's very early in the crossbow season, and we have three hunters that have been wanting to get in the woods.

You're actually our most experienced hunter today.

That never happens to me from the very first time in the woods.

This is actually going to be your very, very first deer hunt, isn't it?

Very first.

All the way up to been a couple of years but haven't been successful yet.

You have taken some hunts, but have you ever taken a deer with a bow?

No, not at all.

So we're really looking forward to this hunt.

We're on a piece of property here in Shelby County that is plumb full of does.

It also has a couple really nice bucks.

So let's go check in with our hu So you've been hunting for a couple of years?

Right.

And you've been successful.

You actually have taken a deer before?

Yes.

So my first year I went hunting with my dad and we took two deer.

And then the second time I went hunting, I took a couple of does to fill the freezer.

So I'm guessing you really enjoy eating deer as well?

Yeah.

I mean, there's no meat like doe meat.

That's something that I've heard everybody say, and it really is true.

My husband's really into hunting, but I didn't really start getting into it myself until I went to, like, the becoming an outdoors woman class or the field to fork.

That was where I really fell in love with hunting and getting to meet all kinds of other women who enjoyed it too.

So Anthony, super excited to have you out here today.

You started watching hunting shows before you had ever hunted.

Well, as everybody know, the Covid kind of shut things down.

So I watch a lot of sport and I'm an avid sport fan and, and, there was nothing on and I started watching all these hunting shows.

Okay.

And, just get more and more into it.

And I just was like, man, I would really like to try that.

Have you ever had people in your family that hunted before?

Never.

Never.

Came from the projects, man, nobody.

Well, when you tell people, hey, I want to try this deer hunting.

What were they telling you?

Did were they going, hey, this is really cool.

I want to try this to look at you like, what are you thinking?

What are you thinking?

Like, don't you know that Kroger is open?

You can go get all the meat you want.

This is different.

It's very relaxing.

And, hey, you may put some steak on the table.

You know you can't beat that.

That's what I plan on doing.

Hey, good luck to you today.

Thank you.

Well, Joel, you're our vertical bow hunter today.

So tell me a little bit about what got you into hunting.

There was just something inside me that wanted to do it.

I mean, wanted to learn it.

Wanted to learn a new skill.

And my wife and I were talking that we'd like to learn where our food comes from and be able to harvest something here in Kentucky.

And be able to bring that to the table.

It's really exciting.

So you decided to reach out to find some classes on hunting?

Yeah, my first class was the field to fork Turkey hunt, and I took that.

And then I took the archery deer hunting field to fork as well.

Okay.

Well hey, Bow hunting is one of those things.

Everything has to line up.

Yeah, but I think you've got a really good chance to put some meat on the ground tonight.

Good luck to you.

Yeah.

Thanks, Chad.

We've got all of our hunters in their blinds, and we've got about 3.5 hours till dark.

Joel is our hunter that's closest to us, and he literally 200 yards on the other side of this pond.

And he has set up over a little field that's got some clover in it.

The deer have been feeding in there very heavily every single night.

So hopefully you have some luck.

Our next hunter is Megan.

She's got a little shaded area.

That is a situation where deer a lot of times come out earlier in the afternoon.

I suspect she may be our first to see a deer.

And then in the very back, we have Anthony.

Now Anthony's on the spot that we were getting so many pictures that our camera batteries went dead, but the deer were coming in really, really, really thick.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Hopefully we get a text real soon.

I'm probably going to regret it, but I might just wait and watch.

There's a doe.

Just came out of the woods down there.

About 50-60 yards down.

Moving around a little bit.

I think she█s going to stay right there on the edge of the woods.

Looks like she█s headed back in there.

I just caught a glimpse of her.

Well, this hunt really has a deer camp kind of feel.

We're already getting text.

Megan is already seeing some does.

Joel seen a couple does.

Megan's actually got one really close to range right now.

Unfortunately, Anthony is only seeing squirrels and songbirds, but he's in a great location.

He's going to be seeing deer soon.

I█m feeling alright.

Just anxious.

Just excited.

I█m not all the way sad that I didn█t go ahead and take the shot.

I mean you never liked to see a deer walking away from you.

You know, I█m not sad I didn't like the shot.

I'm pretty excited, though, because those deer showed up like ten minutes after we sat down.

So I'm hoping that some more come by to graze.

We get to see some more.

Got him.

Looked like I might have smoked him.

I don't know.

It felt good.

The shot felt good.

He went down right there.

He went down about 30 yards.

Well, we just got a super exciting text.

It looks as if Anthony had a small buck come in, made a shot and they said the deer is down.

So we're going to go check them out here in a few minutes and see what he got.

That group of yearlings and does that came by before, that we let walk, they came back.

Not the whole group, but most of the group.

Now they're walking down the field.

I█m hoping they█ll come back for some more corn.

I just got word that Anthony just killed a buck.

That█s pretty awesome.

This is first hunting trip.

We█re pretty happy for him.

Got a doe down here at the bottom of the field quite a ways out right now.

But that's exciting.

Here's your bolt right there.

Oh yeah.

Here's your bolt.

And you shoot in a rage broadhead.

It's open, covered in blood.

See those fletching?

Yeah.

So there you go.

There's that.

And here's blood right here.

It went right through there.

I know it went right through there.

Want to walk through there and see if you can see any more blood?

It went right through that way.

There it is right there.

Oh yeah.

There's a deer right there.

That deer didn't go 80 yards.

There you go, man.

That's a great great deer.

Very first deer ever.

There you go.

What an experience man I can't believe it man.

My first time out, man.

That's first time out.

And you, you take a buck and velvet.

You may never go to the grocery store again.

You may just go ahead and bring the protein home this way.

What an awesome experience.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Oh man, did I!

Okay, I can't stop smiling.

I'm like a kid right now.

One trip in the blind, one buck down.

That's pretty good right there.

Smile Come on man you can smile.

I'm telling you.

They█re facing towards us too much.

Come on girl, turn sideways for me.

Come on big girl.

Come on, turn around.

Okay.

I█m taking her.

I█m a little shaky.

I'm glad we waited.

I'm glad we waited because I feel really good about that shot.

I feel like it was a good, clean shot.

And I heard her as crash soon as she went to the wood.

Oh my goodness.

My grandpa is going to be so proud.

Right now we█ve got several bucks down in the corner, and, one really, really big buck and some younger bucks down there.

All the does seem to have bolted.

Well Megan, what do you think?

I heard you made a shot.

That was so much fun.

Yes, that was awesome.

It was, And I want to sit here and talk to you some more, but I also want to go look for, It was pretty incredible.

So do you think you put a good shot on it?

I do, I do.

We waited a long time for the right shot.

Well, let's go see.

Okay.

Let's go see what we got.

Oh, yeah.

Right there.

Okay, so this is a very well used trail.

You want to start walking to where you want me to do it?

Sure.

We know it came in right through here.

Let me check this way just to be sure.

Went the other direction.

Maybe it█ll turn around and come back this way.

Over here.

I just walked up on her.

Oh, it's a big doe.

That's a lot of chili.

That is a lot of chili right there, you know it didn█t bleed a whole lot.

And, we were trying to trying to track it, and, we just walked in here just a few feet before we lost the blood, and, there she lays.

I'm gonna grab a leg and we're going to drag this thing out here and get it out here in the light.

We can get a better look at it.

Okay, great.

Look at that.

Nice.

I'm sorry.

Yeah.

I'm just.

I'm just so excited.

I'm just so speechless.

I'm so thankful that, That we got a good shot on a deer.

For this hunt patience was really the name of the game to get a good shot on a good deer.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, hop in and let's get a picture.

So, how'd you hunt go?

Yeah, it went good for not harvesting anything.

But, we saw we had a doe that came up and stayed within.

Probably.

I don't 100 to 50 yards of us for seemed like three hours.

After that you actually saw some bucks, right?

Yeah.

We saw five bucks down in the corner of the field, which is amazing.

And, a nine point with, kicker that came out.

That was a big he would have been a shooter.

I'm glad you came out.

And it was an awesome experience.

You know, I had no anticipation that we would come out here and and really get two deer on the ground, much less have three incredible hunts.

Yeah.

But that's the reason we bow hunt.

If you came out here and killed one every single time, it would.

You wouldn't do it a whole lot.

Yeah.

You're looking for the challenge.

You got to spend some time in the woods.

What a cool afternoon.

Yeah, it was nice.

I really appreciate.

Here in Kentucky, most of the state's muskie are produced in a fish hatchery down around Cave Run Lake.

And we went and met up with a biologist to check out the process.

I'm here today with Mike Hardin.

Mike, I know you've been with the Fisheries Division for a long time and you're currently program manager and assistant director.

But Lifetime Muskie Fishermen.

Lifetime.

I grew up- first place I ever swam was at a riffle at the mouth of Warix Run Creek.

Oh, yeah.

And of course, that's impounded by Cave Run Now.

And it's also a good muskie place.

We recently just spent some time at Minor Clark Fish Hatchery, which is pretty important for the Muskie population here in Kentucky.

Clark Hatchery is the only hatchery.

We've got two hatcheries and that's the only one that grows Muskie.

So actually trying to reintroduce Muskie into our waters and in greater numbers kind of started very close to Cave Run Lake how many years ago?

That's a little interesting.

It's 1973, so that puts it at about 50 years this year.

Okay.

So, you know, we ought to commemorate that and go muskie fishing.

I couldn't agree more.

I think I caught my first muskie with you in the boat at Cave Run Lake.

Yes.

That is awesome.

That time of year is not that far away, it█d be time to go try it again.

Here at the end of summer, when we start seeing some cool nights, it'll be time to get out the buck tails and go give them a shot.

So tell me a little bit about what the department does in the process of raising Muskie to be released back into our Kentucky streams and lakes.

We get fish from the local waters, usually out of the tail waters or the lake, and we bring them to the hatchery.

And of course, then we go through the the hatchery protocol to induce spawning.

We're located just below Cave Run Lake here, so we have easy access to the brood fish and we're able to maintain brood stock on site as well.

The females are spawned into a dish pan.

Once we collect the eggs from the females, we'll have a separate crew that are collecting the milt from the males.

Milt is added a a couple different stages during the fertilization process.

Once egg collection is complete for that female we█ll add water that's stirred in for about 2 minutes to ensure that the eggs are fertilized.

Once it's been 2 minutes, we█ll rinse the eggs off with water three times and then we'll add diatomaceous earth stirred into the eggs that is allowed to sit on the eggs for about a minute.

And then where we█ll rinse three times.

Then the eggs are set aside to allow to water harden for about 3 hours after they water harden for 3 hours, we will take the eggs.

We will actually use a disinfectant called ova dine.

The eggs are disinfected and in a disinfectant bath for about 10 minutes and then the eggs are split into different hatching jars and placed onto the hatching battery.

They'll stay on the hatching battery for about 11 to 14 days until they're ready to be pan hatched.

After we pan hatch the eggs, they're placed into trays inside our tanks here.

They will swim out of those trays in 5 to 7 days and they'll go down into the spawn text material in the tanks.

After about 11 to 14 days, they'll swim out of that material and go through what's called swim up, and they'll swim up to the surface.

At that point, we█ll take those fry and we'll stock them into 7 to 9 one acre ponds down here on the hatchery.

After we put them in the ponds, we don't stock fry or like we do some of the other fish.

We grow these out and so we feed them, give them a lot of great care because we're, you know, we want to make sure that we have the most success when we put them in the water so we grow them out with feeding them minnows or goldfish.

And then at the end of the summer, we have two different stocking categories.

We'll stock our streams with nine inch fish, but for our four lakes, Cave Run, Green River, Buckhorn and Dewey like we grow them out to a little bit longer.

You see those in around the 12 inch range and that gives them a good chance of success.

Each year You know, we try to raise 11, 12,000 fish there at that hatchery.

And then, of course, those get distributed across the state.

So it's very important and it's critical to the Muskie.

Interestingly, one of the best streams in those early surveys for Muskie, you know, back in the late sixties and seventies, one of the best streams was the North Fork and Licking River, which now, of course, is the headwaters of Cave Run.

Yeah, well, I say what I know you love.

I know you love the Muskie.

Every time we start talking Muskie, you get that grin and that giggle and you're like, I know you love fishing for them and you know what?

If you've ever had success catching a muskie, how could you not?

I mean, it is literally the apex predator or the wolf of the water.

And I'm very proud of the work that's being done right there at Minor Clark.

Yeah, the work that's being done now and really the foundational work that some of our early biologists here at the Kentucky Department Fish and Wildlife did.

You'll see their work cited in many of the other state█s Muskie programs as well.

Well, thank you so much for spending your time with us today.

And next time it'll be instead of standing by water, we'll be on the water.

In six weeks.

In six weeks, let█s hit it.

The seasons are starting to change, and rabbit season is right around the corner.

And I'm not sure who's more excited me or my beagles.

I tell you what.

November 1st, out here in Henry County, you know what that means.

Rabbit season.

Opening day of rabbit season here in the eastern part of Kentucky.

You know, out of all the hunting season comes in, this is the one I look forward to the most.

You know, deer season archery.

I love it, but it can be hot.

You know what?

The dogs are ready.

I've been looking forward to this for a while now, and my dogs have been out for a little bit.

I know you've had yours out a little bit.

A little bit.

Not.

Not a whole lot, but hot and dry makes it hard on them.

Hard on me too.

I've known you for a while, actually.

Jose came from one of your dogs here today, and, I know that you're an avid outdoors person, and I know you're an avid hounds man as well.

That's right.

So this, this is one of those days where when you get your dogs out and turn them loose and actually carry a shotgun and finish out some of these chases, it's pretty special isn█t it.

Yes, sir.

Tell me how you got with you today.

This is, John Thing, friend of mine.

Okay.

We got together a lot.

Nice to meet you, John.

You too mr.

Miles.

This is a piece of property that, that your family owns.

I appreciate you letting us come out today.

Yes, sir.

Thank you very much for coming out.

Well, I tell you what, I'm super excited.

I know these dogs are ready to go.

I say we turn them loose, and, right here looks beautiful.

I mean, it's this spot right here.

Just looks fantastic.

Let's turn em loose and we'll catch up and talk some more.

And I'm sure there'll be some teasing going on, because I don't.

I don't plan on hitting them all, do you?

No.

First one who misses buys lunch.

I just won't shoot for it until one of you guys miss.

Let's turn them loose and, let's let's start right here.

So.

All right.

Go, Josie.

There's a bunch of rabbits in here, buddy.

Hunt them up.

Josie.

Where they at Josie.

Hunt them up Josie.

Not today, Peter Cottontail.

What did he do?

Turn and go back in.

Yeah.

I didn't know where Josie was at, and when I went to take that shot, I just didn't know where all the dogs were at.

You kill that rabbit.

I see it.

Not now.

It's a big rabbit.

Yeah.

I'm gonna have to score him.

A little buck.

There he goes.

How many pictures you want to see of him?

Yeah.

We got unicorns up here.

Yeah, you do.

Rabbit right in there.

Oh, yeah.

You got that one, didn't you?

Yeah.

Come out behind me.

I know he came out right behind you.

Good shot.

Hey.

Good job guys.

Good job.

Good job.

Man they run that one a minute, you know.

Yeah.

They did, put a good shot on it too.

I'll tell you what.

We knew it was coming that way.

And I just happened to be turned it like, just like this.

And it shot out right here.

Gave you a great opportunity.

Nice shot man.

Thanks, buddy.

Dogs did great on that rabbit.

Good job Checkers, you started that one.

Good job.

It jumped the fence right here.

This is number three, get ready to throw in my vest.

There you go.

Nice job.

That rabbit got pushed in a big circle.

It was coming right back.

That rabbit was jump right here and you shot right on the other side of that fence.

Coming right back where it was jumped.

We stayed close.

And you were smart enough to go.

Hey, you know what?

I've seen this game before.

I know where he's going, and I'm going to cut him off.

Here he is.

I got him.

Well, those dogs finally ran this rabbit up out of this bottom here.

And it's real thick in here, as you can see.

And I got a shot and had to try to take a second shot before I got behind this tree.

We got it, though.

Dead.

Dead.

Hey.

Good girl.

Good girls.

Come here.

Good boy, good boy.

I was waiting on it to jump again behind the tree because I wasn't sure if you hit it or not.

I was out of ammo.

And then I was like, well, he ain't moving.

He didn't come to the left.

He had to have hit him.

Well, Dustin, I believe our dogs have about had it.

But, you know, opening day.

How many miles did they end up running?

Over 10.

12 at one time.

12 on top of the ridge.

Almost 13 is what we finished at.

So 13 mile.

So hey, for day one, you know, they ran a ton.

And I do believe if one of us would have just set right here on the back of the truck, we got a limit in about 30 minutes.

Yeah, right out the tailgate.

Yeah.

We we jumped a lot of rabbits.

We run a lot.

Big running.

Yeah, a lot of runs.

They brought him by us numerous times before we could get get the rabbit on the ground.

You know, they'd run behind and take a big loop and come by us again, but you couldn't see it, it█s so thick.

But, hey, I'd rather hunt a thick area and have the dogs run a lot and see fewer rabbits than hunt wide open and see zero rabbits.

Exactly.

You figured out why those dogs were so tired when you get in those brier thickets and try to pull through them yourself, you go, well, you know, we're tired.

We probably didn't walk too long.

Yeah, the dogs with 13 through briers.

Yeah, that's the difference.

It is amazing.

You know, they call them working dogs for a reason.

That's right.

Today they worked.

And by the end of the year, 12, 13 miles won't seem like a lot.

But on day one, that's a lot of running.

Yes sir.

Hey, it's a lot of fun.

Thank you guys.

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 Jeff Wise, who had a great day on the Cumberland River catching trout.

Nice job.

Here we have John and Bush, who looked like they had a great day of dove hunting in Mason County.

Congratulations.

Check out this beautiful buck in velvet that was taken by 11 year old Martin Gamble.

This buck was taken in Morgan County on the third day of archery season.

Nice job.

Here we have Anna Weber from Henry County.

She caught this nice bass on her very first time fishing on her new pond.

Nice job.

Kentucky's youth deer season is right around the corner.

Now's a great time to start making plans.

And remember, hunting and fishing on private properties 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.