This week on Kentucky Afield, we're in Henry County and enjoying our last rabbit hunt of the year in the eastern zone.

Next, we'll head to Cave Run Lake in search of crappie.

Then, we're going to learn the first steps of building your own bow.

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.

As a rabbit hunter, I can tell you that it's a lot of fun to spend time in the field with other people who like to hunt and train dogs.

And I got to experience that for myself recently in Henry County.

You█ll see this dog missing on a milk carton, right here, after this hunt.

What█d he say about my dog?

You said turn them loose?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you█re good.

Last time you█ll see them, boys.

Right there.

This is the kind of hunt I like.

We've got three or four people out here hunting today.

Everybody brought dogs and, you know, late season rabbit hunting.

You're always looking forward to the end and going, “man, I wish it didn't happen,” but this is a great time to get out and give your dog some last work.

Spend some time in the field with good friends.

Sounds like we█re going to get a rabbit right off the bat.

Right here.

Nick, right at you.

Look, look right here.

We got another one right here.

We got three rabbits up right now.

Got a rabbit right here.

They have gotten three rabbits up and we have not- just got my gun loaded.

Nick saw one come out and take off that direction.

And then a second rabbit came out and ran behind him and I just saw one right here.

I saw that rabbit come up right here, and then he slipped back through, came around and slipped up that trail right here.

Here we go.

Absolutely perfect.

It's a lot of fun.

There's nothing I'd rather do than sit out here and have these dogs running around chasing rabbits.

This is to me, this is the idea of a perfect day.

Here he is, here he is, here he is.

Dale just jumped one.

I hear him yelling, “there he goes, there he goes.” He's trying to put them on a scent trail but he knows where one's been.

There they go, There they go.

Come here, dead, dead.

He got it.

I hear him calling dead.

So that thing- they were running right toward him.

I figured he'd be shooting any second.

Come here, dead, dead.

Good dog.

I tell you what, this is really thinking here and I absolutely love setting out on the edges- That rabbit ran up and looked me right in the face!

I mean, I'm not exaggerating.

It was like I had to pull my gun back like this to shoot at it.

This is a perfect day.

If you can get all your bunnies close to the truck, I don't have to carry them all today.

Going to work out perfect.

Here we go.

Go take this one to the truck.

It's going to be a light load.

Let me see your color of your rabbit there.

See the difference?

Yeah, that thing- It█s blonde.

That's a beautiful bunny.

Yeah.

He's like a blondish red.

Beautiful, beautiful rabbit.

You went to pick that rabbit up and immediately yelled- the dogs jumped another one right there and where I passed there beside it.

Running right to ya█ll.

And I was making my way to you and as I was doing that, you said, here he comes.

This rabbit ran up and got right at my face and stopped.

And I needed my bifocals to put a good shot on this.

It was that close.

Yeah I love when you shoot him next to the truck.

That's right.

We just put it right here in the truck.

Come on, come on, come on.

Come on, Checkers.

Come on, Bell There it goes, Shannon.

One went right here.

Your lying.

Did you see one?

Yeah.

Well, why didn█t you shoot then?

I'm serious I'm not joking with you.

I know you might like I'm messing with him but I'm not.

It just took off right through here.

These two guys are- they joke each other so much, they don't know when they're being serious.

We don█t know when we're serious or not.

Yeah, we're never serious.

That's Nick.

Yeah.

That aint Shannon.

That█s not a .410.

Jumped him up, come down to here.

Barely could see him, thick as could be, but I got a little opening over there and I got him.

Sounds like they just jumped this rabbit the way they█re acting.

Uh oh.

There█s a .410.

Now, these are a lot harder to hit, them rabbits they█ve been killing is big.

This is a little rabbit.

They're harder to hit.

I bet that thing was just right on his feet.

He█s a lot harder to hit than ya█ll been killing, he's a little rabbit.

Hunt in here.

Hunt in here.

Chad.

You get him?

Yeah.

Dead, dead, dead, dead, Hey, hey, hey, hey.

Here.

Chopper, chopper, chopper, good boy.

Good boy.

Bell, Bell.

Wimpy.

Dead, dead.

Hey.

That's a big rabbit.

That was a long shot, too.

Yeah, it was a long shot for a .410.

I'm telling you right now.

Looks like you put it on it.

Headshot too.

Yeah.

Running away headshot.

You got to aim right.

Just right.

Lookie there.

Old dead head.

There's a rabbit right there.

Coming at us.

right here.

See it right here.

Right there see him?

I should have shown a little more patience on that.

That rabbit was coming at me, But this creek was here.

I thought if he turned and went the other way, I'd never get a shot.

So took a little longer shot than I should have, had to shoot at it twice.

And he hobbled away.

He made it about 40 yards from where I actually shot.

But here he lays.

So, you know, sometimes you get lucky.

That was probably a little longer shot than I needed to take, but it turned out well.

Got rabbit number three.

For a late season small property hunt.

That was pretty fantastic.

Did pretty good didn█t we?

It was a lot of fun.

And anytime I can get the dogs out in the field, it's a good day.

Spring is right around the corner, but sometimes it's late winter when the fishing is best, especially when you're targeting crappie.

Today I'm on beautiful Cave Run Lake with an old fishing buddy Khris Mann.

How are you doing?

Doing well Chad.

Good to see you today.

Good to see you as well.

Good to be back out.

You've always told me this is one of the lakes that you like the fish the most.

And people think of this like as a muskie lake.

It's not one that comes top of mind, for people█s favorite crappie lake.

For a lot of people, you're not going to hear Cave Run, but you've always said it's one of your favorite lakes to fish.

Absolutely.

This one flies under the radar.

It truly does.

It's a great fishery.

You'll see today just some of the habitat that we have here is second to none on the lake.

And to be honest with you, this time of the year is when I really, really enjoy fishing.

Well, let's get after them.

Let█s do it.

That's about a that's about a ten inch crappie right there.

Let█s see if we can prove it.

He may be bigger.

There you go.

That looks like a better fish.

Oh, yeah.

That's a nice crappie.

What do you got there.

11, 12, incher?

I need to stick it on the tape measure here and see.

What did we say 12 and a quarter, 12 and 12 and three quarter.

And that's a good fish.

Neat fish.

That's a giant there.

You got him.

That█s a dandy.

Looks like a really big fish.

Yes.

Look at that.

Now that's a kind of crappie in a tournament you want right there.

That's your tournament grade fish right there guys.

Pretty belly on her starting to get egged up.

Look at this.

Look across, the back how big shoulders on her.

She's a pretty one.

That's a big crappie anywhere in the state of Kentucky.

A quality fish.

What was my prediction of pound 65?

Oh, I missed it.

Pound 74.

Get her turn back loose.

Beautiful fish.

There we go.

Good job, Good fishing Chad.

I█ll tell you what that fish committed and it came pretty good ways, didn't he?

Yeah, he did.

You really had to work him and get him in there.

Pretty fish.

That it a pretty fish.

Look at the belly on that.

Look at the belly and the mouth on that crappie.

I mean, that's just a quality.

That's like a quality like Kentucky Lake crappie.

Isn't it?

That█s a beautiful fish.

I can see why you like coming to cave.

Run.

Like I said, that that is a really good looking fish.

You got him to.

I reached out Got him way out there.

Look at that.

That's a good fish there.

Well, you saw him come up and hit that bait.

Now, that fish there was sitting right on the bottom, just a beautiful fish that is so cool watching that happen.

Another quality fish.

Nice crappie not quite to the size that your last few but still we're looking at you know that tells you what kind of fish that we're targeting when you pull up a crappie like that is probably 12 and a half inches and you go well, it's a little smaller than we've been catching.

That's a good day.

On the water.

That's pretty good day.

Big old eyes sitting right on top of their head.

So I tell you what we try to.

You can tell where you're at compared the lure compared to this fish in the water column like you don't want to be down here.

Look with our eyes are at.

So I make sure when I'm pulling that bait, I'm trying to keep that bait of either mouth and higher up in this angle you get down here, they just can't see it.

That fish would have to turn complete nose down to see that bait.

So I try to keep that bait right above it.

And Chris has told me today that keeping that baited real slow retrieve is a really good way to entice that strike.

Even with cold water.

There you go.

Uh Oh.

Oh, I'm going to have to hold this up Chad.

Oh no Little comparison.

Here.

Yeah.

Those are good table fair.

Nine and three quarter inch fish.

Oh yeah.

And a lot of people like to keep those.

And that's the ones I suggest you keep.

Yeah.

Let that big baby go back and produce some more big ones.

And that's the way to go.

How often on this live scope, when you see them hit, do you not feel the bite at all?

Do you sometimes set the hook and you're like, I didn't feel that fish, but I just know he hit it based on what I'm looking at on the screen.

Yeah, it can certainly happen more times than not when you don't feel the fish hit at all and he has hit, it's because you've got a little bit of slack line somewhere, you know, and you just don't notice it.

But there are times when the fish will bite so light.

they're such a subtle bite that that you won't feel them.

And I think there are a lot of anglers out here that aren't fishing with forward facing sonar, that are missing a lot of bites.

And they never know it.

They never know they've had them.

Well, this water temp too this these fish, I mean, these are cold crappie are a cold water fish.

They're not going to come flying across the water to come eat your lure.

You got to put it right on their face, just like we just saw, because the water temperature look, it's 39.5 degrees.

Don't take too many.

Those make a great sandwich.

No sir.

Oh, here comes a big fish.

You got him to.

I never felt that fish bite Chad.

I just saw that he was bound to have overrun the bait.

And I just went ahead and set the hook.

That one get a hook right where you want them.

Right.

And that that part of the top of the mouth.

And that's another good quality fish about a 12 at least a 12 inch fish, maybe 12 and a half.

Beautiful, beautiful fish.

Oh, Oh, that time I just had to kind of be patient as you scanned away and came back to him and wait to see where my lure was and when I to when it came back and I can see my lure.

I happened to be right on it.

You got a good one right there.

He's got you.

Oh, lost my hat almost.

Just don't lose the fish.

We can go get your hat.

what a pretty fish.

Beautiful fish.

Good job Chad.

Beginning of February, Eastern Kentucky catching and beautiful crappie like this, you know, and people for whatever reason, I still have a ton of friends.

When I tell them I'm going to the lake tomorrow, they're like, You're crazy.

And I can sit here.

And this beautiful scenery with a light jacket on catching crappie like this and think if you're not doing this, you might be the ones crazy, beautiful.

Are you an archery hunter that would like to make the hunt even more challenging?

Well, maybe you should consider making your own bow, and that process starts in the field by picking the right tree.

We're out here on a beautiful February day in Woodford County.

I'm here with Joe Lacefield.

Joe, several years ago, you and I did a three part series on how to make a self bow.

That's right.

And we went through the whole entire process.

But you know what?

We kind of skipped an important step.

What was that?

Well, we didn't cut a tree and cut it into staves.

I had a tree that was already down, and I did split that tree, but we didn't actually pick one and cut it.

So that's the biggest part of doing it yourself.

The type of wood that we use that day for your bow was a what?

So the bow that I actually made for the show was a Kentucky coffee tree.

Tell me some other species of trees that make for really good self bows.

Eastern hophornbeam makes a great self bow.

Dogwood.

You know, both of those are white woods.

Hackberry is very underrated for bow because it grows straight.

It's very common in central Kentucky.

So it's a wood that█s available to almost anyone.

You told me your favorite is a tree that you find all over the state of Kentucky pretty frequently.

What is what?

Osage Orange.

Hedge Apple.

They were brought in to Kentucky as a living fence row.

Okay.

So if you wanted to find the perfect Osage tree, what would you be looking for?

You don't want to try to look for the perfect Osage to make a bow with out in a field.

Because when you get a tree out in the field, it just has branches everywhere.

You want a tree that's in the woods that's growing straight up, that has a pretty good crown.

Then you're going to have good growth rings because it's competing with the forest canopy for sunlight.

So that tree should be pretty void of limbs along the main trunk.

If it has a lot of limbs, you have knots you have to work around and all that, which makes a very complicated bow.

Interestingly enough, we're standing right here on the edge of this forest because you have been watching an Osage tree that as a self bow maker, you were like one of these days.

One of these days, that is a perfect tree to cut some staves out of.

And we're going to showcase what makes this tree really good.

And then we're going to go and actually cut some staves and get all the way up to the process to where we started our three part series several years ago.

That's right.

So, Bill, I know you've been making bows for quite a few years, haven't you?

Yes, I've been working on bows now for about nine or ten years.

Did you have a background in woodworking or what made you want to do this?

I've always enjoyed building things.

Even when I was a kid, I was always building one thing or another in my dad's shop and I started out with muzzle loading and started building some muzzle loaders.

That got a little expensive with all the hardware.

But I wanted something a little more challenging.

I always like to hunt.

So I got in the self bows.

When you build a self bow, do you build all of them to hunt or some of them look like pieces of art?

I mean, they literally have got that much time effort and energy.

And when you look at it, you're like wow, this thing's too pretty to take hunting.

Are they all built for the purpose of hunting?

I do make them to hunt with so you can beat them around.

You can make them as fancy as you want and take more time to do that.

But I do like making some that are pretty showy sometimes.

If you really want to get fancy with some of them, I've put snake skins on the backside of them just for maybe some decoration, but also can be used as camouflage on the back of it.

One that I've kind of developed and I've taught a couple of people how to do it is the feather back bow taking turkey feathers across their breast and over their shoulders and pulling those feathers and actually laying those feathers on the backside of the bow.

How many bows you think you've made?

Well, over 150.

Probably somewhere around that many.

Wow.

I spent quite a bit of time between, oh, 40 to maybe sometimes even 80 hours on a bow.

What would you give to be able to sit down and watch a Native American go through the process of building a bow?

Because I promise you, they had tricks that we don't know today.

Oh, right.

And they do it much differently.

You got to realize they built bows strictly to survive.

Yeah.

I build bows for a hobby and they built them to survive and probably had a lot more shortcuts.

It wasn't near as technical as we make it.

So it would be interesting.

This is actually a bigger Osage right here.

It is.

You can get some bows out of this.

You know, it has some branches, it has some knots, it has some wavy grain to it.

This is better than average as far as you look at a quality of an Osage.

This wood█s really, really hard.

Then you get a knot involved in it and that's going to be much more difficult.

Right.

It's a really nice tree, but it's not the specimen that is.

Five or six years ago you marked this tree and you told me, hey, this tree right here has got a lot of characteristics that you really, really like in a tree.

It does.

It has a really straight grain, You know, it's not you're not seeing the grain pattern spiral around.

You know, it's called propeller twist when you have that.

This tree doesn't have knots.

There's a few places that there might have been a limb at one time, but for the most part, it is really, really nice.

It's about ten inches in diameter here at chest height.

You know, I think you can get with this one section at least four, if not five or six staves.

And then you're going to have a shorter section with what we call billets.

You can put two pieces together and make a bow.

Okay.

So we've got a couple of things to do.

We got to figure out where we're going to drop this tree.

What do you think?

Well, we're going to have to take it that way, but we're going to have to remove a couple of these other trees to keep it from hanging up off the ground.

Okay.

Now we can get it.

We need this how many inches?

About 70 or 80 inches.

Right?

Right.

At least six feet.

When you make a finished bow, it pretty much needs to be generally as long as you are a tall.

Ok. All right, So, Joe, now this is the log you've really been looking for.

Now that you've got it down, you can see the rings and everything else is going on inside.

Tell me what you like or what you don't like.

Well, it has really good ring ratios, meaning these thinner, bright yellow rings are thinner.

You want the thicker wood to be your bow material.

Mostly you see that you've got a dark ring and then a light ring well that light ring is a spongy material that when you're chasing the ring, you hit that and it's real spongy and quirky and pops right off.

And you know, you've got a pristine ring.

By scraping all of that light ring off.

The outside surface of your bow is really going to be this what you're seeing, this darker yellow.

The edge of the darker yellow.

You know, we have some wind check here on these dark marks.

So we're going to split based on those.

That'll be our first split.

And then I see another check here.

So basically what I'm anticipating us getting here is, you know, you kind of cut this like a pie.

And optimally, if my marker worked, you'd see six staves if it splits that way.

How are you going to split this?

So I█m going to take a wedge and get it started.

Then we're going to leapfrog wedges all the way down to the end until we get it in half.

There you go.

And then we're going to seal the ends so that they won't crack as water evaporates from the wood.

They're going to be stored in a location where they're going to be humidity controlled.

Right?

Right.

How can you tell, hey, it's time.

I mean, you can weigh it when you check it each month and it's no longer losing weight, then it's at equilibrium with what the relative humidity is wherever you're storing the staves.

Okay.

We got seven nice staves out of that tree.

That's pretty impressive for an Osage in one log, right?

It is.

You know, and it wasn't that big of a tree.

They were all really good straight staves.

It didn't have any spiral to it.

Here we have Brian Lyman with a nice bobcat that he took this season.

Here we have Tommy Baker on a super successful father and son rabbit hunt that they had on the last weekend of the season in Owsley County.

Here we have Anna Scott picture with her siblings and her first doe that she was able to take during the free youth weekend in Webster County.

Nice job.

Whalen McCubbin went trapping on the Beach Fork River and got his first river otter.

Nice job.

Here we have Daryl Sexton with his beautiful Knot County Black Bear.

Congratulations.

It's starting to warm up.

And you know what that means.

It's time for our live spring fishing question and answer show.

Make sure you tune in on February 18th at 7:00 Eastern Time on all of our social media platforms.

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.