This week on Kentucky Afield, we're exploring new water and catching a few smallmouth alongside Kentucky Afield magazine's Lee McLellan.

Next, fall hunting will be here before you know it, and we're excited for it.

We're dove hunting and deer hunting to round out this week's show.

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.

If you like to fish, you already know the excitement and joy of fishing new waters, and that's exactly how I felt on my first float down Russell Creek.

I'm standing here on a creek bank in central Kentucky with a gentleman who is the author of all of the Blue Water Trails articles that are super popular in Kentucky Afield magazine.

Lee, how are you doing?

I'm doing fantastic.

So if you're not in the office, this is where you can be found.

This is where I usually am, yes.

Being on a bank or fishing in the stream from a kayak is kind of like your specialty.

I love it.

Yeah, that's my passion.

And it's gotten more and more and more popular over the last 15, 20 years to the point that you guys have decided to put together a series entitled Blue Water Trails.

Tell me a little bit about what Blue Water Trails is all about.

Well believe it or not we started these in 2010.

Can you believe that?

We've been doing them almost 14 years now.

What we try to do is we want to take the pressure off, Chad.

You know how it is when you're trying to find a place to go.

We want people to be able to look at the articles, study the maps, and know that where you're at is okay.

It's public, I ground-proof everything, I float them.

It's been researched.

We want a stress free experience for people to come out and enjoy a day.

Floating a stream is about a good a day as you can find.

So this blue water trails kind of gives people certain sections with a public put in and a public take out place and gives them an idea of what to expect.

When you go kayak fishing, you kind of need to have a basic idea of how are you going to catch fish, What fish species can be fished for, and how you're going to navigate your put in/take out.

That's perfectly condensed into an article in the blue water trails.

So what stream are we on today?

We're on Russell Creek.

Here, we're barely into Adair County and we're going to float into Green County.

We█re at an old community called Mill Town.

This is now mainly forgotten, but this was a very vibrant place back in the day.

So this float is actually a little longer.

Some of your floats, a lot of them, you focus on two to three miles.

This one█s seven.

Yes.

What are some things that a person needs to consider before going out and experiencing one of your blue water trails?

Well, read the article, of course, and look at the map.

And most of the ones that that I do don't involve any heavy rapids, but a couple of them do.

So make sure that your ability matches up with the water you plan to float.

I'll tell you what I know this is a long float.

We probably need to get rolling.

I have never been on Russell Creek.

I know this thing█s full of smallmouth.

I know it's got a lot of rock bass and other species, too.

And I've heard it's absolutely beautifully scenic.

Well, let's get you loaded.

Get you in the water.

Let's go catch them.

All right, brother.

Oh, what do we got here?

Something little.

Hey, fish is a fish.

Small mouth, though.

It█s a smallmouth.

I tell you what.

He knocked a loop in that line, I was reeling it pretty fast, and it just.

Bam!

Knocked a big old loop in there.

I've been fooled.

Big one sometimes barely hit, little ones: freight train.

I tell you what, just a beautiful, beautiful stream smallmouth bass.

Probably about seven inches long.

Here we go.

Oh, better fish.

Better fish.

I don't know how much better, but definitely better.

All right.

He's.

He's not that much bigger, but, you know, for a stream fish, it's a pretty good fish.

You know, this is probably, you know, 11 inch fish.

Pretty solid.

Looks like it's been eating well.

Pretty nice little fish right there.

You know, you come out here on light tackle or even a fly rod and catch fish this size.

It█s fun.

Doesn█t get any better.

Fish on.

I didn't realize you had a fish on the end.

This little dude took off on me.

Very nice.

I don't think he's going to break the Olympic record, but I█ll take him.

You know, after all these years, I've caught a million but I still love it.

Here we go.

Good one?

No, just a good little, little fighting small mouth.

Just a beautiful little fish.

That's a nice one.

Healthy.

It's amazing how a fish that size can fight like that.

I know.

Tell you what, you get out and you catch stream small mouth, and you get hooked pretty fast.

I know it.

Then if you get lucky enough, catch like a 16 incher and you think you've hooked into Moby Dick.

You know Lee, you and I have stream fished quite a few times on a bunch of different bodies of water.

But I will tell you this.

When it comes to stream fishing, anything that was designed and made to catch a crappie is usually a pretty good lure.

Will catch a stream smallmouth.

It█ll catch a stream small mouth.

If you're fishing and you got white bass, it█ll catch them.

It█ll also fish, you know you'll catch the largemouth bass.

Think about crappie sized minnow imitating lures and you're probably going to catch a fish.

No doubt.

I mean, the little crappy slider.

Yeah.

Oh, the Charlie Brewer slider grub.

I've got more white bass and stream smallmouth on that bait.

All right.

What do you got there?

Mr. Small Mouth.

There you go.

He's been eating well.

He's been at a Golden Corral buffet.

Oh, there you go.

I'll take that.

There you go.

That's a nice looking little smallie there.

No doubt.

What did he hit?

The little yammy fish that's called natural baitfish is the color.

That's a nice fish, Lee.

Good job, buddy.

All right.

Here we go.

Oh.

Oh, Smaller one.

That's just amazing at how hard they fight like that.

Every time you catch one this size, when you first hook them you think, Oh it's a good fish.

This is a two or three pounder.

And then you get it in and you're like, oh, nine inches.

They█re still so fun.

Oh, look at this.

What a nice looking smallmouth bass.

All right!

Thick.

Look at that.

What a nice looking fish.

Strong.

I'll tell you what.

It's a beauty.

That is a quality.

Russell Creek, Small mouth.

Heck yeah, that's a nice one.

That one there probably, what do you think?

14 inches?

Yeah, 13, 14 for sure.

Yeah.

And it's nice and fat.

Obviously has good forage base in here, that's for sure.

Strong.

That is a nice one.

Well I tell you what, Lee.

I absolutely love floating these streams and exploring them with you and doing some fishing.

It█s a lot of fun.

Oh, it is a ball.

It's a ball.

We haven█t slayed them, but we haven't had a bad day either.

We've caught quite a few fish.

And I'll tell you what, this seven and a half miles is not a beginner float.

It's a long float.

Yeah, it is.

So it's a time, if you're going to try to get it done in anything less than 8 hours, you're going to do a lot of paddling with no fishing.

Yes.

So we've done a lot of that.

But it's been a great time.

And this is a beautiful, beautiful float.

Yeah, it is.

I tell you what, if anybody wants to find out more about this particular stream or any of the other streams that you've covered in blue water trails, how do they go about doing it?

Go to the website, go to the top right, type in the search bar, “blue water trails,” and it'll bring up the blue water trails page and the Russell Creek is coming out in this issue of the magazine and it'll be on the website soon.

It's been a lot of fun.

I love your passion for small fishing.

I love your passion for just exploring in a kayak and canoe and history and it all comes together and floats just like this.

All right, well, let's fish our way out and finish it up.

Heck, yeah.

Maybe a 20 incher.

We might be right in the middle of the dog days of summer, but that doesn't mean that our Kentucky fall hunting seasons are not right around the corner.

Coming up first on September the first is dove season.

So Thomas, how long's your family been here in Spencer County?

They've owned the farm since about 1980.

Okay, so this is pretty much all you know then?

This is it.

It's been here longer than I've been alive.

So you put some work in here I see.

You've got sunflower seeds.

I see some heads out here.

What else you got planted?

So in this field, we have some sunflowers mixed in with that.

We have some foxtail.

And unfortunately, the Johnson Grass came back.

I tried to spray it and kill it off, but it had already seeded out and it came up thick.

But still, once it's bush hogged, you can see we're walking the seed.

It's still full of seed on the ground.

And that's what we're hoping to use to pull in some birds today.

There's probably more people on September the first hunting in the woods of Kentucky, or in the fields, than any other day of the year.

I believe that it's you know, nobody's been able to hunt since spring turkey.

And today is their first day to kind of get the first crack at it.

So I don't doubt it one bit.

I've been itching for months.

You know, I know a lot of people like yourself put a lot of time and energy in.

You may hunt, what, three or four or five days all year.

As far as dove seasons, or getting real good hunts?

Yeah, really good.

Absolutely.

It's a lot of work, but it's a it's a it's a love it's a passion to get out here and do this.

Well, hey, I hope we shoot.

Good.

It's been a while since I've shot a shotgun, but I am looking forward to it.

Let's get spread out here and hopefully get a couple of shots, what do you think?

Let's do it.

All right.

one coming.

There you go.

Nice shot.

Thank you, Chad.

Nice shot.

That felt good.

I was backing up and I didn't even have to pull the trigger because you smoked it.

Well alright, it feels good to get on the board.

First one down.

Let's get a few more.

10:00, Chad hard left.

Nice shot.

All right.

Now we're starting to get some action.

Pulling the trigger a little bit here.

Better walk out there and grab that one real quick before I forget where it's at.

Well, that's the first dove of 2021.

Started out slow, but we're starting to see a lot more birds still not doing a lot of shooting, but it's just a nice, casual afternoon with good friends out here shooting doves.

So one nice thing about having your own field is that, you know, I've been watching this for the past week and right here in front of us, this seems to be where the majority want to come in and start feeding.

We've got this power line to our left.

They like leaning up there to look for danger.

Obvious.

We're not going to shoot them off the wire.

That would be unsafe.

I'm thinking it's going to start lighting up.

I think it's going to be good.

Here we go.

Nice shot.

Got one.

I see the feathers.

Alright, birds starting to fly a little better.

Hopefully this last 2 hours is going to get pretty hot and heavy with some bird action.

They're actually flying different then the way that we were scouted, they were always coming in from this way and now today they're coming in behind us.

Well, you can't see them until they're almost right on top of you.

So you're going to have to make some pretty quick shots.

But hey, that's all right.

I'm out here to shoot.

If I don't, I don't have to hit them all.

Missing them is part of the game.

Coming our way.

That's a low bird.

At the mojo.

Landed at the mojo.

Take a walk out here and flush that bird?

I believe we could.

I know we can get to atleast this first row.

It's like a quail hunt.

You got to jump shoot the doves.

I tell you what, that that's something that if the field was really full, that's not something you'd want to do.

But in this situation, we're hunting 127 acre farm with four people, you know, exactly where everybody's located.

So he was able to walk out there, knows exactly his target and what's behind him, and was able to go out there and take that bird.

Knowing his backstop, and where everybody was at, that was a safe shot.

Good job, man.

Nice shot.

Hey, bird.

I know I missed him.

I never shot.

I thought I'd taken it off.

You know, we've all been there.

Well, you can't can't hit them if you don't shoot them.

But I had my safety on and pulled the trigger and nothing.

No, bang.

There we go!

Here you go.

Hey there's one right here.

They're starting to fly now.

Yes, sir.

There is one more down.

I'll see if we get a few more.

I think they're starting to fly a little better.

See what happens.

It's not a dove.

He likes that mojo though.

I've seen those mojo decoys work extremely well.

I've seen it really turn birds and bring them right to it.

I'm a firm believer, you know, I've seen if there's dove flying across a field and they get a glimpse of it, they'll turn 90 degrees and come straight to it.

There's one coming in from behind again.

Nice shot.

You just shot the wing off him.

Excellent shot.

Got two of them.

Oh I didn't see yours.

I didn't see it till was fluttering to the ground.

That was a good shot.

I Appreciate that.

Coming from this way.

Good shot.

Thank you.

Dropped it right on the decoy.

Did I really?

Oh, yeah.

You might flush a bird or two when you get out there.

That there was a good shot that thing came around as I was going to hit the decoy wasn't very high and then started to take off right about time he smashed it.

Coming right to us.

Oh, you got that one.

Yeah.

Oh, nice shot.

I don't know if you or I got that, but I believe that was you.

I got the first one.

You got the second.

So we got two down.

That was good.

Here we thought this game was about over.

And here they come at.

There's some good teamwork, Chad.

Yeah.

Good job, man.

Nice shot.

They wanted that mojo.

He took a second to find.

Well, Thomas, I appreciate you having us out for the opening day.

The weather was great.

We saw plenty of birds.

We didn't get a limit, but we had a little more of the fun.

I would agree.

You know, it's opening day.

The weather is perfect.

I think this is the first time we were mentioned in that, you know, I haven't been sweating is very comfortable.

What a great way to spend an afternoon, haven't had a gun in my hand in a while.

Come out here and get to shoot at some birds.

Missed most of them, but.

That's the way it is.

But that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Absolutely.

Thank you for having us out.

No problem.

Glad you make it out.

Thank you.

I don't know about you, but I've already had my bow and arrow out and I've already started practicing.

September the second is right around the corner.

The opener of the Deer, Kentucky Archery season.

Well, it█s early in the archery season.

Today is actually my second time in the stand.

You know, I was sitting at home and all of a sudden this rainstorm comes in and it cooled the temperature down significantly.

And I said, oh, my gosh, I got to get in the deer stand.

My first hunt of the season, which was actually a really, really cool hunt.

I got about right here on walking in last time and about got ran over by a small buck.

Got in the stand, and had a doe walk right underneath of me.

Probably should have took a shot.

But at that point in time we had seen a pretty good buck in the field and I wanted to give that deer a chance to make its way to me.

Saw tons of deer, had a great hunt, and now I'm looking forward to getting back in there this afternoon with cloud cover and a little bit of rain.

It's time to be in the deer stand.

Got all set up and settled down.

I've got a major soybean field right here.

The deer are really, really destroying it.

I know this farmer would love me to take a couple of does out of here for him.

The last time I hunted this stand, there was a deer at the whole time.

When I walked in, climbed up the tree, got settled down, I just looked out There and saw its ears moving around there the whole time.

There could be deer really close right now.

In the woods behind me, I have a heavily used trail that█s alongside a creek.

On the other side of that is another soybean field.

So these deer in the middle of the day, they█re going to be bed or use this to move to different areas in the shade or the cooler areas in the field to feed.

They can show up at any time.

I really like this spot.

This weather is changing fast.

You know, we had a rainstorm earlier today and now it's gotten windy.

It█ll rain and it'll kind of slow up.

The deer are already in the field.

I don't know how many there are, but there's close to ten.

So I know the deer moving, as long as I see them out there I'm going to try to wait this out.

This type of condition requires a perfect shot.

If I don't think I can make an absolute perfect shot or hopefully i hear the deer go down, I probably won't shoot.

I don't want a situation where it's a deer that I got to rely on a blood trail because with rain coming and going, I may not get one.

But I'm still very confident that I know those deer are excited to be getting this cooler weather just like I am.

You don't get these type of days in September very often where the temperature just bottom falls out.

Unfortunately, it brought rain.

Oh, we█ve got a doe 25 yards right on the edge of the beans.

I've got a tree right here between me and the deer.

So, oh there█s two.

These deer are in range, but they got to make their way to me to get around this tree.

Man, if they come forward eight or ten yards, its going to give me a perfect shot.

All right.

That second doe is the biggest.

That's the one.

I'm going to try to get a shot at.

Alright that deer is hit really good.

She's going down.

I'm going to give it the normal 30 minutes and go check it out.

Well, last night in the tree stand, we were hunting our soybean field and there were a couple of does that came by and we let them come right up to us until I decided all right, this is a shot that I know I can make.

Thought I made a beautiful shot.

The deer went about ten yards, laid down in the soybeans, thought, okay, this is great.

Got down out of the tree, walked up, actually bumped this deer.

I decided with the rain, there's probably not going to be any way to blood trail this deer.

So I decided that, you know what?

We're going to wait and come back.

It's going to be cool all night.

Temperature in the forties.

Let's get back out here and see what we can find.

So we decided to walk this creek bed, and lo and behold, about 200 yards from where the shot was taken, here she is.

Walk right in on the deer, laying right here in this creek.

Completely cold.

Feels great.

The shot was right where I thought, but you know what?

I learned something.

I thought I was going to take a shot and hit this deer right in the heart.

That was the plan.

End this really quick.

No blood trailing required.

You know what?

These deer are tougher than you think.

Looks like a good shot.

Next time I'm going for two lungs.

But, I can't be more excited to have this to put in the freezer early in the bow season.

Now let's check in and see who else has been out having fun and this week's Ones That Didn't Get Away.

Check out Jay Atherton with these two nice bass that he caught fishing with his papa in Davis County.

Congratulations.

Michelle Jackson caught this beautiful walleye while fishing on Laurel River Lake.

Nice job.

Here we have Chris Kelsey and John Collins, who took this nice summertime coyote in Stanford, Kentucky.

Congratulations.

Check out Grant Ward with this giant bluegill.

He caught this fish on his seventh birthday while fishing in Clark County.

Nice job, Savannah.

Jolly is all smiles with this largemouth bass that she caught in a farm pond in Nelson County.

Congratulations.

Mason Brown caught this nice crappie while fishing with the rooster tail at Taylorsville Lake.

The kids here in Kentucky will be back in school before you know it.

Now's the time to make plans.

Get outdoors for some great family fun.

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.