This week on Kentucky Afield, Chad's daughter Campbell is jumping in the boat, and they've got a whole bucket of crayfish to use as bait on Nolin River Lake.

Next, we're beating the summer heat while fishing, and we're doing it waist deep in a stream.

Then we'll join law enforcement and watch as they remove a sunken car from one of the state's lakes.

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.

Some of my most memorable days in the field have been with my kids, but their lives are incredibly busy.

And sometimes I have to remind myself to let them experience the outdoors at their own pace.

Today is a really special day for me because I'm actually going to go fishing with my daughter Campbell, who likes to fish with me.

But you like to fish like, 2 to 3 hours at a time max, right?

Mhmm.

You don█t like going out daylight to dark, do you?

Yeah, no.

This is the perfect time of year to do something that we're going to do today And that is we're going to go out and fish some of these rocks that are in 10, 15 feet of water.

And usually in July these bass have spawned, they moved out to find that cooler water.

And it can be a great way to catch bass the way we're going to target them today.

You know what that is?

No.

We are going to use what's in this bucket here.

Look at this.

These are live crayfish and their escape artists.

I'm going to try to keep them in bucket here.

We're going to fish with live crayfish.

I don█t wanna- I don't want to do this anymore, actually!

Alright, hon█, walk up here.

You're going to fish up front with me.

All right, so here's what we've got.

Just a little I don't know what number hook that is, but it's a little bait keeper hook.

Now, I will tell you, these fish, these crayfish, when you let them get to the bottom, they're going to try to do what they naturally do in a creek.

Have you ever been in a creek when crayfish are in there?

No.

They will crawl under the rocks.

So what that does, It'll get you hung up.

So we're going to put that little split shot in there.

We're going to cast it out.

And when about time- you'll see your line swimming.

And then when about time you think it hit the bottom, keep it tight and just pick it up a foot or two and let it swim back to the bottom again.

Okay.

I'll show you how we're going to hook them.

So really the size that we want is about right there.

That is about a perfect size crayfish.

So go in the back and underneath on the bottom of the tail and just you got to pop it through the.

And then that right there is all you want.

Whoa, we got some escapers.

Why are the small ones better than the big ones?

Well that's a good question.

You can catch really big fish on the big ones, but you seem to get more bites.

We're not tournament trophy fishing today.

Of course, you can't fish with live bait tournaments anyway, but we just want to catch fish, so watch him swim.

See that?

Yeah.

See that little guy going crazy?

Well, bass can't hardly stand that.

When they see that they're going, oh, we got to have some of that.

That's what we want right there.

Swim swim swim swim swim.

So.

All right, here's yours.

If you try to like overhand cast these real hard, then you'll cast them off.

So what I like to do with them is I kind of take it and I'll just kind of pendulum swing it, and then flick it out there.

See that?

That's plenty far enough.

And then just reel it slowly?

Keep your rod tip up and just start letting it go.

Go down.

just want to let it go down.

I can see him swimming around with it right now.

Okay.

After the fish spawn, they're up on the banks.

But now all the bait has been hatched.

And so these fish start chasing these little, these little minnows, and you see them out here chasing them kind of in the jumps.

I have a swim bait on another rod.

If we get a chance to catch one, we'll try to do that too.

But so sometimes, like super early in the morning, these fish might be out here working, but as it gets, sun comes up, they'll move back near these rocks.

So that's why we're not super early this morning.

because sometimes if you█re real early.

Like the bite will get better throughout the day.

All right, let's go hit a different spot.

You see that big stump right there?

Yes.

If you cast toward it, you're going to come right over.

You don't even have to cast that far.

It's actually not that quite that far out.

All right.

You're probably going to be real close.

You want this one?

You can do it.

Come on.

You got to catch it.

Here, trade me out, rods.

Keep the rod bent.

Okay, Okay, okay.

Don't just- keep the rod up.

Pull him up with the rod.

Hey, Quit.

Quit.

There you go.

Let the rod do the work.

Oh my gosh, what have you got?

Let me get the net.

If this is a bass.

Hang on.

Hold on, we█re going to give you a little more drag.

Now, now reel.

When it's up.

Reel reel reel reel reel reel reel down.

Now use the rod tip to lift him up.

Reel again?

Reel down.

Oh my.

Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!

Dad, get it in!

Holy What.

It's huge.

That's a 5 or 6 pounder.

All right look open your line up.

Open your bale up a little bit.

Okay.

He's a monster.

Oh my gosh.

Oh look at this fish.

It's bigger than I thought.

I thought it might be a catfish now.

Oh, my.

Campbell.

That's that's a very, very, very old fish.

See how he's kind of beaten up from post-spawn?

Look at that ole Bruiser.

You you wore him down.

Look at that bass.

You wanna hold it?

How old do you think it is?

It's an old fish.

You can tell it's really old.

It's kind of in bad shape.

It's kind of got a lot of marks and spots on him.

Wow, that's such a great fish.

I tell you what.

That's cool.

That is a great catch.

High five!

I can█t.

Oh my goodness.

Let█s see what we think that fish weighs real fast.

Whoa.

Yeah.

5.2.

All right, puttin█ him down.

All right, hun, it's a great fish.

This is a really nice fish.

We're going to get it back in the water.

All right?

Dad, how do you get these crayfish?

Well, you get in a creek.

And the way I catch them is with the sain net, which is like six feet wide.

And you go into a creek that's got some flat rock or some, you know, some pebbles and stuff, and you just kind of shake it along.

And then when you pick it up, they'll be in there that and some minnows and other fish too.

And the trick is keeping them alive because, you know, they live under the water.

Yeah.

You think that.

Oh, I'm just going to put them in a big bucket full of water and they'll be fine.

That's not how it works.

You.

They have to be able to get out of the water.

And, so you need water that doesn't get too hot or too cold, and you have to keep them wet but not submerged.

So that bait bucket right there with that little mesh net that lets them crawl up it, actually works great.

Here we go.

Campbell.

You can do this one.

I think you knew this one wasn't quite as big.

This one's the spotted bass.

Spotted bass right there.

Now, this would be a good one to keep if we wanted to eat some, but we're not going to mess with them today.

Trun him loose.

Uh oh, Campbell, I'm getting up on you now.

Mine ain't near as big as yours, but another fish on.

You want to catch this one?

Sure.

Here you go.

I got you.

Yep.

This one too.

You kind of started off too big.

Now.

There you go.

That's another spotted bass.

That's a good size spotted bass too.

See how these lines are all together on the belly?

Yeah.

And then the color is real vibrant.

It's a real pretty fish.

Really aggressive.

And like I said, if you ever wanted to eat a bass, that's about what you want.

About a 12 to 14 inch spotted bass, beautiful fish.

And they love crayfish.

I mean, they are crayfish eating machines.

It's no fun with you.

I wish I would go with someone... Who doesn't catch any?

Yeah.

You want to go with somebody who catches none?

Yeah.

No fun because you're competitive.

Well it makes me feel better about my fishing skills.

You're so competitive.

You're like, dad, I don't like going with you because you catch ten, I catch two.

I'd rather go with somebody who catches zero and I catch two.

Yes, that;s exactly what I am saying.

Oh, look.

Let me see that pole, Let me see that pole.

Okay, okay, okay.

Uh oh, may be a fish on this one.

Oh, here you go.

It's got a crawfish on it.

Can you get this one?

Yeah, yeah.

Oh my, that's a good one.

That's a really good fish, hon█.

So, did you see what just happened?

Those fish came up behind us, and I reached down and I quit reeling my crayfish.

I reached down to pick up my swim bait for one cast, and I looked over and my rod was going in the water.

You saved my rod and caught a bass all in the same shot.

Yup.

Perfect.

All right, get it back in the water.

Well, Campbell, have we hit your 2 or 3 hour limit?

That's about how long you like stay out.

Yeah.

Well, I'll tell you what.

I've enjoyed it.

It's been a lot of fun coming out here with you today.

Caught a giant.

Yeah.

What do you think about that bass?

How long you think it█s going to take you to catch one bigger than that?

A long time.

I don't know, maybe the next cast.

That's what's the beautiful thing about fishing.

Maybe it's the next cast.

Kentucky has tons of streams throughout the entire state, and they provide perfect fishing opportunities for the heat of the summer.

Well, today is super exciting.

This is how the vast majority of people in Kentucky and how I learned how to fish.

And that is at a pond or a stream with a couple of hours to kill.

You know, days are getting shorter and summer is winding down.

That makes stream fishing really really, really good.

These fish know that they need to feed up before winter gets here.

So soon as you get those couple of cool nights If you got an hour or two to kill, it█s a great time to go jump in a pond or in a stream like where we're at today, we're actually on Floyd's Fork in the Parklands in Jefferson County.

We've got this beautiful stream that comes through that I know has a lot of small- mouth, because as a kid I was raised fishing this stretch of water.

So I can't wait to get out here and see what█s feeding today.

You know, a lot of times I like fish out of a boat or a kayak, but when you just got a couple of hours, it's just not feasible to go load a kayak up plan and drop in and take out or go hook up to the boat.

Those are more half day to full day trips.

This is how I really like to fish.

Just an hour or two, go hit my favorite couple spots and see what you can catch.

I come to a stream like this, which there are thousands of them in Kentucky.

I mean you really look at the bluewater trails and it's pretty much covers a lot of them.

I like to focus really in two areas, and that is very, very, very small, minnow imitating lures like this little bait here.

This happens to be a three inch keitech easy shiner or crawfish imitating baits, like what I have here, that goes right on the bottom.

So really keep it simple.

Those two options right there.

About all you need.

Oh.

Right there he is.

What do we got here?

It looks like a little smalley, maybe.

And I mean little.

That's what we... Nope.

I've actually got a large mouth bass here.

That's about as small as they come.

Well, I hope to catch a couple small mouth, but that right there is a very small largemouth bass.

Two steps into the creek, and I've already got a fish, So that, that's pretty promising.

Oh, here we go.

Well.

Five steps in, they█re small, but that is definitely a smallmouth bass.

You know what?

They're still a lot of fun.

Wade fishing when I get into the water.

I want to walk upstream.

And the reason you do that is because as you walk, you can see I'm kicking up a plume of stuff behind me.

So I like to fish upstream and cast at fish before I walk past them.

Here we go.

I don█t know what this is.

Looky there.

Beautiful Floyd█s Fork smallmouth bass.

That one there's probably nine or ten inches long.

It's a little better fish.

Here we go.

Putting on a show.

There we go.

Another small mouth.

That fish, You know, you have no way to know it's exactly the same fish.

But I cast it out and before I even engaged my reel he hit.

Pulled it about five or six cranks, came back and he just smoked it.

We've had a little bit of a deep pocket.

When I say deep, I mean over three feet for a long stretch.

Right where that water comes in, where it's moving, that is where I intend to catch some fish.

And hopefully bigger fish.

Better fish.

There we go.

Just hard fighting stream smallmouth you just can't beat them, they're just so much fun to catch.

Get it back.

Oh, that soaked me.

This one here hit right by me.

Another smallmouth bass.

Man they're bunches of them in here in that ten inch range.

This is the third or fourth one, I mean, in a row.

It almost looks like I'm catching the same fish over and over.

This one's a little shorter than the others, but looks like he might have a chance to be a little fatter, too.

Pretty fish.

You know, the small mouth in these streams, you kind of see this coppery color that's in them.

They're really, really, really pretty.

Now, when they get bigger and they get out on the lake you've got this barring on them like this, when they get bigger, you start seeing those bars show up.

But these are very pretty little smallmouth bass.

I tell you what, that moving water right there looks like a perfect opportunity if I can get something that's got a little more weight to move it across the bottom to maybe catch a little bit bigger fish.

So got this little jig here.

It█s hard to be catching as many fish as I'm catching now and go, Oh, it's time to change tackle.

But this is a perfect spot to go to a little bit bigger fish bait.

Here we go.

Oh, yeah.

Looky there.

That's a respectable smallmouth bass when you're in a little creek or stream fishing here in the state of Kentucky.

Here you go.

Look at that pretty fish.

These fish are looking for easy opportunities and I made it as easy as I possibly could.

And he smoked it on like the second cast.

Here we go.

Looky there.

It█s a rock bass.

I'll tell you what.

You hear these called a lot of different things.

Rock bass, google eye, goggle eye, whatever you call them.

They're plentiful and they're fun to catch.

And man, they love a jig.

I█ll tell you what, I got so many bites on the swim bait earlier, Even though I think I can catch bigger fish on the jig.

I'm gonna go back to that swim bait and try to pick up a few more.

Another cool thing about coming out here this time of year, late summer, early fall, everything has hatched.

The crayfish spawn has taken place.

There's bait and minnows everywhere.

You could grab a rod and reel and a couple of small hooks and come down here and catch all the bait that you needed to catch these fish.

Crawfish especially, just turn over a couple of rocks.

Let the water clear.

Pin them to the ground.

Makes great smallmouth bait.

What a pretty fish.

I love smallmouth bass.

Here we go.

I'll tell you what.

Today has been a lot of fun.

We're right here in Jefferson County.

Walked down a little trail, accessed the Floyd█s Fork right here in the Parklands.

Probably have walked half a mile three quarter of a mile.

Fished three or four pockets of water really quickly.

And man, have we had a ton of bites, caught a bunch of fish.

It's been an absolute blast.

From time to time here in Kentucky, there are items that end up in our rivers, lakes, and streams that are not supposed to be there.

And that's up to our law enforcement division to investigate.

We're out here at Cedar Creek Lake today and Lincoln County.

This is a department owned lake.

We got a call that there was a car in the water.

We're using new equipment to ultimately get the car out of the water.

There's a marker behind me of a buoy that we've marked that has the GPS coordinates of where the car has been located.

So the equipment we're using today is a tow fish sonar, which allows us to GPS plot everything and take pictures as we're going through the water and cover a bigger area.

There it is.

This program we use allows us to plot everything and it allows us to ping, put a to take a picture of each thing.

So right here, we've got a picture of the edge of the boat ramp with GPS coordinates.

And then you can see is these little red dots are each image I just took of a car.

Everything in the water puts off a shadow, so we're able to look from different angles to see.

Yeah, that is confirming that it's a car or a body or stump or whatever.

And it allows us to be able to get all these points and it gives us a GPS coordinate of it to where we can go and type in our phone and then drop a marker on it.

And it's going to get us in a real close area of that object to whether we deploy the ROV or we have to send divers down.

In this case today, we're going to send a set of divers down.

We're getting ready to deploy the ROV, an underwater drone that has multiple propellers on it and a claw on it.

It's going to be ran off a generator.

It has a big monitor on it, along with a computer that you use for the sonar equipment.

There's a process to go through.

You got to run your code to the ROV.

There's a lot of little bitty things you've got to check before you can put it in the water and make sure everything works.

We're going to try to get a picture of the car up close and maybe try to get a license plate off of if we're lucky enough and the water's clear enough.

I'm on the rope.

There's the car.

There it is.

Once Taylor County gets set up, they're going to follow that buoy marker down.

We've got it attached to magnets at the end of it.

They're going to be able to follow that line down to the car.

It's going to help us utilize not wasting so much time.

They're going to hook up some straps and then take a cable out there from the tow truck.

And that way they can hook up to it and get the car out.

This is just an easier way for us not to waste as much time with having divers constantly searching in the water.

This equipment that we're using is allowing us to get that time factor down and not have the divers in the water as long on those hot summer days.

This new equipment that we're training on and getting out in the field is going to be able to help us be able to recover cars or other objects out of the lake in a timely manner.

If we have that worst case scenario of a drowning at all, allow us to go out there and recover that individual for their loved ones quicker by using this equipment to hopefully narrow down the areas that they are and go down and recover that individual or either get the car out in a timely manner once we know it's there and locate it.

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 Rebecca England, who is multitasking while fishing with her dad.

Here we have her with a spotted bass that she caught on the Ohio River while eating a chicken tender.

Nice job.

Check out this beautiful smallmouth bass that is really dark in color.

This fish was caught by Mike Edlund at Kentucky Lake.

Nice fish.

Nine year old Milam Skaggs caught this beautiful 25 pound blue catfish in a farm pond in Floyd County.

Nice job.

Kathy Williams knows how to beat the summertime heat that's on the Cumberland River.

Trout fishing.

She caught this nice 22 inch rainbow trout and released it.

Nice job.

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

Make plans now to get them outdoors before they head back to the classrooms.

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.