This week on Kentucky Afield, being on the water is relaxing and enjoyable, but it can also be dangerous.

We're on boat patrol with conservation officers to see how they're keeping people safe.

Next, we'll see where all of Lake Cumberland█s stripers come from.

Then we're bow fishing the tail-waters of Lake Barkley.

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.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers work hard to ensure safety on the water.

If you're going to be hitting the water this Labor Day weekend, make sure that your boat is in good working order and that your passengers are riding in a safe position.

Hey man.

Howdy.

I'm Officer Abrams with Fish Wildlife.

We're at Taylorsville Lake today in Spencer County.

I'm assigned to Oldham County.

Officer Casper here is assigned to Spencer County.

This lake is one of the busiest in the state, mainly because of the proximity to Louisville.

It just draws a lot of people from, you know, our biggest metro area.

We get a lot of people out here.

Our mission is to enforce the hunting, fishing and boating laws in the state.

This time of the year, it's mainly boating.

We're out here mainly to keep people safe, make sure people go home without being hurt at the end of the day.

While we're out here doing boat patrol, it doesn't mean that we ignore 150 charges, which is hunting and fishing.

Even on boat patrol, if we see someone fishing, whether it's on the dam or from a boat, we'll go ahead and check them.

And if we have any issues there, we will address them.

Howdy, y'all catching any?

Little bitty sunfish.

Little bitty sunfish.

All right, we're going up all right here beside you real quick.

Get you checked out, be out of your hair.

Okay?

We did a safety compliance check after checking their fishing license.

Make sure they had lifejackets for everybody on the boat.

Had a fire extinguisher, sound producing device.

Last thing.

How about an air horn or a whistle?

Some sort of noise making device?

I've got a horn.

Give me a little toot.

All right, guys.

Well be careful the rest of your day.

Have a good day and hopefully you catch some fish.

Okay.

Thank you, guys.

Have a safe one.

Hey, you too.

Happy fourth.

Thank you.

Look at that dog.

Dog?

Where█s the dog?

Right over there on the swim platform.

That's a good dog.

Got to love the dogs.

Got to love them.

We don't deserve them, lord knows.

Hello.

You got a fishing license handy on you?

No that█s a Florida license.

You have a.

You need to have a Kentucky fishing license.

You don't have a Kentucky fishing license?

No.

One bluegill.

A few more and you have a pretty good sandwich.

All righty.

Awesome.

Thank you, sir.

You have a good one.

Good luck.

You guys got a couple of fishing license on you?

Yes, sir.

Awesome.

Thank you, sir.

Yes, sir.

So far, we've checked a few fishing licenses.

We notice everyone on the boat so far as being safe and having fun.

We love to see that.

You know, we're all about fun, but we make sure that you're being safe about it, too.

That's a big thing is safety out here.

So like that girl sitting on the on that pontoon, you'll see that on plane going down the lake.

And that's kind of thing we're looking for.

I mean, in the end, we're out here to make sure everybody's safe.

I don't know if he's got a spotter on the boat.

Yeah.

How are you doing?

Good, sir.

I'm Officer Abrams with Fish and Wildlife.

Alright.

The reason we█re stopping you is because we don't see you█ve got a spotter on this boat for the tubers there.

Okay.

What█s that mean?

Someone to watch the people on the tube while you're towing them.

Do you have any sort of mirrors or anything like that?

No.

Okay.

So next time I have to do that then?

I have somebody that's driving while someone's watching them?

Yeah.

Correct.

If you don't have the mirrors.

Basically one of you guys would have to come in here and watch the other one on the tube.

So that way we can do it that way.

Alright.

We have to have a spotter to be safe.

So a basic boat inspection is us just making sure you have all the required safety equipment on your boat.

A life jacket for everyone on board.

A type fourth throwable if your boat is 16 feet or over.

All boats are also required to have a fire extinguisher on board, and the fire extinguisher has to be serviceable, meaning it cannot be expired.

Okay.

Yeah, that's good.

In addition, all boats have to have a noise making device, whether it's a horn an air horn or a whistle or a bell.

So yeah, one of them is going to have to come in and and, and be your spotter.

So when someone falls off, they see it.

In the future, if you get a rear-view mirror to mount right there, you wouldn't have to do that.

Okay.

All right.

So y█all be safe.

Thanks, guys.

Yep.

Happy Fourth of July.

You too.

Be careful.

Whenever you're towing someone, whether it's tubing, skiing, anything like that, you're going to have to have someone on board with the captain.

Keeping an eye on the tuber, to keep them safe.

Make sure they can alert the captain when he falls off.

Big safety thing again.

If you don't have someone there to watch you, you need to have mirrors like Officer Casper was explaining, so you can keep an eye on the tuber.

Well, there you go.

Let's go get them.

We are.

Yeah, she's holding a kid.

Kid's got a lifejacket on, but she's holding the kid while she's up on the bass seat.

We saw a person riding in a high rise bass seat on a bass boat above idle speed.

It's an illegal, unsafe position.

Good.

I'm Officer Abrams of Fish and Wildlife.

The reason we're pulling y'all over when the boat's underway.

Like it just was.

You can't have anyone sitting up on an elevated bass seat.

Okay?

So hang tight just a second.

I got you.

I don█t want you to get your fingers pinched or fall in or nothing.

Quite often we see people riding on the bow of the boat or the stern of the boat.

The bow of the boat is going to be the front of the boat.

Stern's going to be the back.

That's a violation and is extremely unsafe.

Hypothetically, if your boat's underway and you hit a wake, you have a rider riding in one of those unprotected positions and they fall overboard.

A lot can happen real quick.

So we definitely take that very seriously.

Make sure you do one of the two.

Okay?

All the information you need is on the back.

Okay.

All right.

Be careful.

You all have a safe holiday, okay.

Hope everything goes well today.

Yes, ma'am.

Get ready to go pull this boat over.

Yep.

Stop, Stop!

Stop.

Go ahead and throw it in neutral for me.

How are you today?

Good.

How are you doing?

Good thanks.

Good.

I'm Officer Abrams, Fish and Wildlife.

Look, the reason we're pulling y'all over is because y'all are taking off under way.

And you have a rider hanging outside the protective gunwale of the boat.

Okay.

Okay?

That's a big safety thing.

Okay.

I'm sure you can imagine.

You hit a wake or something like that.

He falls overboard.

You're underway.

Yeah.

It can get real bad real quick.

Okay, Hang tight one second.

Captain, you got somebody Id on you?

When it comes to a pontoon, especially on the front of the pontoon, outside of the protective railing, if you fall off of that, you're just going in between the pontoon straight back to the motor.

And we've seen the aftermath of those types of things.

And that's why we're very serious about them.

And we stop and we write citations for that.

A little two in one action there.

Same exact reason we pulled the first boat over.

It's a really big safety thing.

If, God forbid, something happens when someone's on the outside of that protected gunwale it can get real bad real quick.

So we take those very seriously.

We've flown them out of here to UofL for that.

When they go off the front of a pontoon and get sucked in between the pontoons and takes them straight back to the motor.

We don't have a lot of idle speed areas on this lake, but we have a few.

The main one being by the marina and we get a lot of complaints from the marina about people violating that no wake zone.

So we patrol it often while we're on the lake, mainly because of the damage that it could do to the the marina and the boat's tied up in the marina.

Well, there you go.

Breaking wake pretty big there.

Batter up.

Make sure they don't switch drivers.

All right.

Talking about the no wake right there?

Yeah, that would be the exact reason why we're stopping you.

Okay?

Yeah.

I was actually talking to the baby right here when it happened.

All right.

I'm Officer Caspar Fish and Wildlife.

The reason we pulled you over was because of the wake.

Yes, sir.

Can we see a life jacket for everybody on board, please?

Life jackets are very important.

When something bad happens on the water happens really fast, and you don't have time to put on a lifejacket, basically on a vessel.

Everyone on board has to have a life jacket that they can put on.

If you're under the age of 12, that child has to be wearing the lifejacket while the boat is underway.

So the other issue is the infant doesn't have a life jacket on.

Anyone under the age of 12 has to have a life jacket on at all times.

Okay.

Well, we bought it.

We had it.

We do.

You have one that fits?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Let's see that, On a jetski any time the jetski is underway anybody riding the jetski has to be wearing a life jacket or PFD, which stands for personal flotation device.

If you're skiing and tubing, the person being towed behind the boat on the skis or the tube must be wearing a lifejacket regardless of age.

If we see a violation like that, we definitely stop them because the safety aspect of it to prevent injury or something worse and of course it is against the law.

So whenever we see it, we are going to enforce it.

All right, sir, what I did is I wrote you for the No Wake Zone and Child under 12 not wearing a PFD, okay?

I've had to work a few drownings in my career.

I've only been on a little over three years now and I have already had to work a handful of drownings.

A lot of them, if not all of them, could have been prevented with a life jacket on.

I love being a conservation officer.

It's one of those jobs that I believe I was born for.

I love to hunt, fish, I love boating.

And that's what we do.

We enforce hunting, fishing and boating.

Ever since I was a kid, I realized I wanted to do something with the outdoors.

And when I found out there was essentially a police officer for the outdoors, for people that hunt fish and boat.

I knew that's what I wanted to do.

And ever since I've been hired on, it's exactly what I thought it was going to be.

I just love to get out there and do my part to keep people safe and ensure that hunting and fishing and boating will be around for my children.

Every single year, over a half a million stripers are raised at Minor Clark Fish Hatchery and released in the waterways across the state of Kentucky.

I'm here today with Scott Barrett.

Scott, How you doing?

Doing good.

We█re here today to talk about stripers, yeah stripers.

That's been an interesting topic here in the state of Kentucky And I█ll tell you what they go in several bodies of water, obviously Lake Cumberland being the one that gets a good majority of our stripers.

Tell me the process of what you guys do and how do you take a striper?

Because it's such a unique fish in the wild.

You guys are doing this at a fish hatchery, but that's a fish that's been some of it█s time in saltwater, right?

Right.

we have them in one eye acre ponds.

we will start those bonds draining at least 24 hours in advance.

And we'll creek the pond down slowly.

So it gives all the fish time to kind of come down towards the deeper end.

And our ponds are they start out shallow and they end up, they, they have a gradual slope down into this catch basin we'll crack them open, drain them down and once we get them all down in the kettle there, that point we can get in with the with the seine and seine those out.

And we have a lot of help down there.

We have some big tubs like garbage cans you can imagine, we flip of the seine into those cans and then we have employees carry them up the steps.

We have the smaller tanks on our pickup trucks and they will pour them into there.

We have O2 rolling on those tanks and some good clean water.

when we get down we'll take those up the hatchery and into our main building.

There in the tank room and we got a big pipe that you, you hook up to the smaller tank that lets us shoot them off into these tanks.

We have eight individual concrete runs in the hatchery so we can shoot them off the truck into those runs.

And at that point we can begin to process them, we█ll do sample counts on each individual size and get an idea of how many per pound for each size class that we can weigh them and put them onto larger hauling trucks to go out, you know, either that afternoon or the next day.

A lot of the time.

It's an amazing process.

when I hear you walking through all the time, effort and energy of feeding and draining and grading, it's like having a big garden.

But you know, your output is is fish live fish, same principle.

It's farming, but we're raising fish, you know, We've been talking about stripers, striped bass, and priority one is always Lake Cumberland.

That's an area you've been working for how many years now?

17 years.

17 years.

So how many years have we been stocking Lake Cumberland now?

We've been stocking doing the experimental stockings all the way back into the fifties and sixties.

what makes Lake Cumberland like priority one such a perfect destination for stripers?

So striped bass need a cool oxygenated water and Lake Cumberland being as deep it as it is, has a lot of cold water available.

And so we've got this two layer fishery where we've got our warm water species like black bass and crappie and bluegill in the center.

But then we also have a really cold oxygenated water below that that we can have a good walleye fishery, a great striped bass fishery.

And so that's what makes Cumberland is so awesome is we do have both of those features.

So when you guys go to stock them how do you decide what part of the lake do you have to be near deep water.

I mean, do they do really well the first couple of years not being in certain areas, or do you spread them out from dam to headwaters, we actually spread them out.

We have ten different locations that we stock around Lake Cumberland.

We don't like to put all of our eggs in one basket, so we stock about 50,000 at the ten different locations.

Okay, so we█re doing 500,000 fish total in Lake Cumberland each year now.

Okay, So three year old fish, that first one and 500,000 you're talking about, these fish are legal, right?

At this point, Yes.

So any fish like the fish we stock in 2023, they're going to be legal size going into the end of 2025.

Okay.

They're very fast growers in Lake Cumberland, it doesn't take them long to reach 22 inch size limit.

I really appreciate all your hard, hard work and efforts.

We like doing it.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

This night out in the water gave a whole new meaning to lights, camera, action.

All right.

You want to step on in?

So you two do not need an introduction to one another.

You've seen each other at many archery tournaments throughout the state for many years now, huh?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, today we're going to try to shoot some fish.

Now T, I know you█ve shot fish a lot.

This is your rig.

So you spend a lot of time shooting fish.

Yeah.

And you obviously shoot a bow and arrow a lot.

But this your first time, isn't it?

Yes, my first on bow fishing.

You're very familiar with this bow.

And I know you're a much, much better archer than I am, but the main thing is when you put this arrow on, you've got this stopper right here.

You have to make sure that it's pointed up.

Otherwise it's going to hit your rest and it's really going throw you off.

The next thing is make sure that this is definitely out here in front, in front of your reel.

Okay?

you want this out here, you're not going to have a lot of time to aim.

You're going to see a fish maybe a second or two and it's more point and shoot.

Aim low, aim low, aim low.

You guys are really unique in the fact that both of you have shot a perfect 300 score.

My first 300 I was kind of shocked whenever I shot it.

Is it was kind of crazy at the time.

It just kind of happened.

I knew I wanted to shoot college archery somewhere, but I wasn█t sure.

And I was looking at a few different ones.

And finally decided to go to Lynsey Wilson and went up there and talked to the coach and got a scholarship.

Did you get him?

Yeah, Fish on.

That's what you want right there.

Find you one that.

There you go.

That is an Asian carp shot right in the face.

That's the way to get started right there.

On the other side of that concrete, there's a bunch of fish.

Just shoot.

Just shoot into them.

I think you got one on Paige.

Yeah, she does.

Alright grab your line.

Pull him on in.

What do you got?

Asian carp.

Hey, your first fish ever right there.

Nice job.

We pulled up here, and you see these dead floating fish here.

And we looked over and there were just tons of fish laying right under them.

And you smoked it.

That is awesome.

Got one.

Headshots only.

Headshot.

Nice.

She got that fish.

Look there.

In the face.

Right in the head.

Right in the top of the head.

That's how you do it right there now.

Now that fish just came up and boiled and you was fast enough to get on it.

Now that was an awesome shot.

I█m going to flash the light.

It's not quite dark yet, but if you strobe the lights, what do you expect to happen?

They'll start jumping.

It scares them.

Might want to stay in the middle of the boat.

Get ready.

There you go.

Now you see why they talk about people getting hit by these things.

I was going across the lake one night, wide open.

One jumped up, hit me right dead in the chest.

It was probably a 10lb silver.

Tell you what.

Take the wind out of you.

Something hit the bottom?

Yeah that was a fish.

Oh, we got one, a free one.

Just jump right in the boat.

Right down through here is usually pretty good.

The bugs are terrible.

Here we go.

Fish on.

Oh, come loose right there.

Did you see that?

You win some and you lose some.

Oh my gosh.

Right here.

See it right there.

Oh, that was a good try.

Got one.

Coming your way.

There we go.

Joker got us under the trolling motor.

It is hard to see them tonight.

That fish actually came from under the boat.

Swam up.

Got lucky.

That's one of the easier shots to make when they're swimming alongside with you.

Got one on right up here.

Oh, there you go.

We got fish on the left.

Fish on the right.

Fish jumping in.

I█ve got a feeling they█re about to go crazy.

All right, Paige, you ready?

I█m about to hit them.

Did you get any?

Oh, my goodness.

Hey, nice job.

What do you think about that?

That was awesome.

I think we got a couple.

Oh, my goodness.

That was pretty exciting.

Oh, yeah.

Did you have any idea it was going to happen like that?

Because I didn't think we'd have that many jumping at us.

No.

Oh, my goodness.

So what do you think?

You've shot about tens of thousands of times.

First time out on a boat fishing.

You've had some pretty crazy experiences already.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

What do you think?

Something you think you would like will like to try again?

Definitely.

I'm definitely having a blast.

This is really fun.

You going to bring a helmet to mouthpiece next time?

Yeah.

Got to prepare better.

So you obviously have shot a bow very, very similar to this.

A bunch.

So do you think that helps prepare you to do this?

Yeah, I think so, because I'm familiar with the setup of the bow.

So definitely makes me feel more comfortable shooting it.

The pace and the time of a full draw and release is a lot different than going to the line and waiting for a whistle.

And when you don't have time to think, you just go at it.

Oh, oh.

Ahh.

They're back.

It's a crazy thing.

It is hard to react and pick one fish out while you're dodging them and you're just in awe.

It's hard to pick one out and shoot it.

It█s like, ahh the boat will catch enough.

It's a lot of fun isn█t it?

Oh yeah.

A lot of energy when they started jumping in a boat.

Yeah.

I can't tell which I appreciate you guys bringing this out and showing us this.

I know you shoot fish all the time.

Yeah, quite often.

I█d love to sit out here all night and do this, but I believe the buckets are full.

And hey, you guys, you guys have got to get to school, don't you?

Yeah.

So this is a lot of fun.

Keep up the hard work at NASP.

And you know what?

It's going to pay off.

It's already taken you to college.

You've got a scholarship waiting on you.

And you can, you can get away from shooting paper and get out here and do this.

Thanks a lot, guys.

Nice meeting you.

You, too.

You as well.

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 Kathy Williams with a nice 20lb striper that was caught on the Cumberland River while using artificial bait.

Nice job.

Check out this beautiful muskie that was caught by Riley Richmond.

This fish was caught on a big South Fork.

Congratulations.

Here we have John Carr with a nice hybrid bass that was caught on the river.

Nice job.

Here we have Bailey Fields from Falmouth, Kentucky, with her first squirrel this season that she got on opening day.

Here we have Ashley Cain, who was kayak fishing at Peabody WMA, and caught this nice largemouth bass.

Here we have Colton with a very nice bluegill that was caught in a farm pond and Clarkson, Kentucky.

Nice job.

Hey, just a reminder, Kentucky's dove season opens this week on September the first.

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.

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