This week on Kentucky Afield, we're bringing in the New Year with beagles on the chase and rabbits on the run.

Next, we'll head into the hills with a group of Do-It -Yourself public land elk hunters.

Then we're gearing up and catching FINs Lake trout.

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.

First up, we're headed to eastern Kentucky in search of rabbits.

Get up there Josie.

Hunt with them.

Hunt with them.

Let's go, Let's go.

There he goes!

There he goes!

We're out here in McCreary County this morning.

It's the week after gun season wrapped up.

If you're a rabbit hunter, that's your favorite time of year because it opens up to some new properties.

And I had a gentleman that's been texting me on via Facebook for quite a while now telling me that he had a couple dogs This is Rage, a young male of Luke█s.

And this is a full litter mate named Lilly.

Okay, so Rage.

And Lilly Yeah.

Okay.

You had them out quite a few times this year?

A handful, You know, probably probably eight or ten times this year so far.

Okay, So that's pretty good amount.

We made the trip down here today.

He brought his two dogs out, and a young boy that he wanted to get out and do some rabbit hunting.

So, brought my two four year old dogs down here.

Josie and Checkers.

And we've already jumped a rabbit.

And we're looking forward to having a great day in the field.

Ease up here Luke on top, and see what they're doing over here.

That sound of those beagles opening and chasing those rabbits just rings through these hollows.

It's a beautiful, beautiful sound.

Opening up this morning.

Now, let's see if it's productive.

I missed him.

Missed him alright, it█s still up.

Let me get up here by you, Luke.

My gun wouldn█t cock.

This lever on the side wasn█t up far enough so I just had to pull the hammer back and just shoot that way.

You live and learn.

We got another bunny up here.

We had a rabbit in this bottom that got jumped up and they ran it out to about 185 yards.

The dogs went quiet I█m literally watching them on GPS and they didn't move.

That is almost a guaranteed sign that they've pushed that rabbit in a hole and they're sitting there on that ho They could be they're digging.

They could be trying to go in the hole, but they quit barking and they quit moving.

So that rabbit won today.

Get a couple moving across here.

These are better shooting lanes here.

Right over there.

I just saw it.

You get him?

Yeah I hit it.

Bounced him around.

He should be laying up there to the left somewhere.

Where they at?

Hunt them up.

What do you know?

I knew I bounced him.

I'll tell you what.

We saw this rabbit run around the chicken house couple of times and you said you shot him.

Nice job.

Thank you.

You got him The dogs were over there and then they kind of quit barking for a minute.

And you go, I bet he's laying right there on that hillside.

Yeah.

You wasn't lying.

Here you go Luke put him in my sack.

That█s one down.

Get in here.

Get in here.

Come on Lill, come on.

Work him out.

Work him out.

This is so thick in here.

You know, you do all your work trying to get a rabbit up, and then you got to find yourself a shooting lane and just have some patience.

If you try to move through here, try to keep up with these rabbits, they see you and they turn and ends up you never seen anything.

You got to kind of stay still.

and let the rabbit come to you.

That's why it's always good to have four or five hunters.

When it crosses hopefully we get a shot.

Right here.

Right at you.

Gun jammed.

Think you got it?

No, he stopped right there.

But I don█t think I got it.

Shell case didn█t eject.

I have never seen that.

Literally, the brass came flying out, but the hull expanded and stuck inside right there.

You'd sure think in and around this old truck and equipment we█d have some bunnies.

There he is, get him.

She█s on it right there.

Here he is.

Shot him right here.

That rabbit was hit right here.

Went in right here.

Here it goes.

Josie's got it.

Come here Josie.

Come here.

Come on.

Come on.

That's a good girl.

Good girl.

Good girl.

Okay, Let it go.

Let it go.

I think she only got half of it.

Jason, that rabbit got jumped over there and it came running up right through here.

And when I shot it cut and got in this briar thicket.

Well you need a bulldozer to go retrieve it.

Yes.

The dogs actually got in here and got to it.

And I heard a squabble.

They got most of it.

Yeah.

They were like, Hey, we ran this rabbit by you twice.

We get our part first and they did.

But that's part of it.

It█s rabbit hunting.

It sure is.

There he is.

There he is!

Coming right to you.

And a miss.

It█s a little farther than I wanted to shoot, but that was my only shot.

Oh this dog here is going to pick it up.

There he goes.

I█d have never dreamed that rabbit would be sitting there.

That rabbit's got to be hit.

You think he'd stop and let that dog get that close.

I mean that dog put nose on him.

They got it.

Oh they did?

Checkers has got it.

Let that go.

I must█ve hit that rabbit.

So we were sitting here waiting for him to run it back out.

And we knew that the rabbit let us get way too close to it.

And then all of a sudden, I heard a whine or squeal, which if you've ever varmint hunted or coyote hunted, you know what a rabbit squeal sounds like.

That's usually the sound you make.

Checkers had caught it.

All right, well, here we go.

Well guys, it's been a blast.

I can█t tell you how much I appreciate you inviting us down.

You got beautiful countryside here.

Yes, it's been a great time.

We'll have to do it again.

Elk hunting in eastern Kentucky is getting more difficult.

But if you have some patience, a few good friends and some time to do some scouting, it can definitely be done as a do it yourself hunt.

Hey, my name's Travis Stevens from Richmond, Kentucky.

I drew a cow firearm tag for week two.

We're out here in Bell County.

We█re on the Middlesboro tract.

I'm really excited I got drawn to hunt this piece of land.

It's over 30,000 acres, which, from what I was researching, is one of the larger tracts that you can hunt on.

It's a WMA, it's an old reclaimed coal mine, and we're doing a spot and stalk style hunt, which is a style I've never done before.

But we decided to do a DIY hunt with no guides, and we█re going to be camping out here in these mountains for the next few days.

I've come out here a couple of times to scout, which is something that I've never done.

I█ve deer hunted for several years.

This is new to me, so I'm really excited.

Been watching a lot of YouTube and getting excited for this hunt.

Elk.

At the very top.

At the clearing, right at the edge of the tree.

Yeah.

I think we spotted some elk.

We're going to go take a look.

We saw five elk on top of this ridgeline here.

Came down.

Tried to get a good shot.

And I spooked them or they just took off into the timber on the other side.

So we're going to hike around this bend here, try to catch them on the other side.

They bedded down somewhere.

This morning we saw several elk right here on this hillside then the fog rolled in.

I think they spooked or something.

So we're getting ready to go back out to the same spot.

We've been hunting all day, kind of hiking around the other side of this ridge.

But we're hopeful that they'll be here when we get back tonight.

All right.

Let's just sit right here.

We've got my buddy Tyler behind us glassing this ridge back this way, and then we're looking at this up here, toward this ridge, its where we saw them this morning.

We're hoping they█d come back out.

Hey, I think I see something over here, I'm gonna get up and just see if I can see something.

We got Travis checking out a hillside right here where he thought he saw some movement, then we've got a nice little ridge and a bowl that we're glassing over where we saw some elk earlier.

So hopefully between these two viewpoints, we can find something.

Fun first day.

We hiked around a lot and we tried our best.

Couldn't find them tonight, but we're going to go back to camp, get a good night's rest and hit it again tomorrow.

See if they're back.

Lord help us to have a successful hunt today.

Help us to harvest an elk and to feed many people with it.

Thank you for our fellowship, and no matter thank you that we got to have this time together.

So fun.

You say in your word that when two or more are gathered, you're there also.

So would you be with us today?

Just help us to glorify you and all that we do.

Including this hunt.

Pray this in Christ█s name, amen.

Going around here, like walk this whole thing around to where we were yesterday morning.

There's Elk over there.

There█s two or three.

There's a whole herd right there, right beside where we started yesterday.

They're walking along that top road.

They█re on that far, far ridge.

All right.

Let's go.

So this morning, we left our campsite.

We kind of made one big loop around that ridge that we'd started on.

Well this morning, we came and they are right where we began yesterday, where we originally spotted them.

And now we're trying to hike in and get a close shot.

I think it's too far to shoot.

You can't make the shot from here.

No, It's way too far.

All right.

We got to keep going.

All right.

They've crossed over that hill.

We got to go now.

Let's go.

There's some of them even closer right there.

All right.

The one on the left.

You hit, you hit one.

You hit one.

It's about to go down.

It just bedded down.

It's falling.

Did it take off?

It█s down.

It's down, Travis.

Oh, my God.

That was awesome.

I got my first elk.

Yes sir!

Oh.

Oh, my gosh.

Yes, sir.

That was awesome.

It's down.

Oh, my gosh.

Good shot.

Good job.

That's the herd, baby.

Look at them.

There's a bunch of them.

We found him.

Are you sure it█s down?

Are you sure it█s down?

We got to get closer.

I got to make sure that it█s down.

Oh, look at that.

Oh, my goodness.

Look how big.

Oh, look how big it is.

Oh, my gosh, that's awesome.

Look how huge.

Oh, my goodness.

Woo!

Cow, late season, baby.

Wow, that was awesome.

Oh, look at those mountains.

Awesome.

Wow.

This thing is so much bigger than a deer.

I mean, that thing is so big, and they're beautiful.

Look at this fur.

This is amazing.

I mean, this is just amazing.

You kidding me right now?

Look how big it is.

I know.

Look at that shot.

Get you some.

That's awesome.

That's bigger than I imagined.

Daniel, can you believe that?

Born here in Kentucky came down from Richmond to do this hunt.

We camped out here.

We got up in the morning and we just kind of walked around this edge and we saw these elk on this hillside.

So we took off after them.

And we we were like, so- man, we made it up here.

I got a long shot and I just can't believe it.

Got a good shot here.

Yeah.

My dad's old gun came through for me and got a cow elk.

Congrats.

Yeah man, it█s beautiful.

Good work.

Man, you guys helped so much.

It's such a privilege to get out here and do this this morning with these guys.

So thankful for my friends coming out here.

This is a team effort.

Uh, gosh, thankful we get to do this here in these pretty mountains here in eastern Kentucky.

Man, what a great experience.

Are you interested in getting into fishing this year?

Well, it may be cheaper and closer to you than you think.

Well, Lee, we're at Academy Sporting Goods.

We're actually going to take $50 each and we're going to pretend that we are not fishermen at all.

We're literally going to go with $50.

We don't have rods, reels, hooks, bait.

We literally have nothing except for a fishing license.

We do have that.

Yes, we do.

So we're going to go about picking up some gear and show you how to get started with fishing without breaking the bank.

Because let me tell you what, it's a passion.

You got the passion.

I got the passion.

You probably spend more than 50 bucks nowadays when you go fishing.

Don█t tell your wife.

I'm just running over what I spent the last two weeks.

and we're going to pick up some tackle and some gear.

We may take that straight to a fins lake which is not far from here.

Try to catch some trout.

Yep.

There's a couple of ways we can start this.

You can go tackle and see how much is left, then buy a rod and reel.

Or you can go buy a rod and reel and see how much you've got left and buy tackle.

Maybe the rod and reel first.

All right, then that will let you know how much you can buy of the other one.

I█m going for a light action spinning rod and reel combo, that's where I'm going to start.

So I think that's this way.

Let's go see what they got.

All right.

Oh.

Oh.

19.

Little bit more than we would want.

These actually come with some tackle.

Having thrown a spin cast rod in years.

We know that we're targeting trout today and we're looking at stocked trout.

I do think that maybe this light action might be the ticket.

I think we're good.

If I end up getting some red worms, this would be the size I'm planning on using.

That's what I need right there.

So I think I got about $10 left.

i█m going to go see how much the live red worms are, get a pack of that and then see what we've got left.

I'm really close to my budget now.

I think we're done.

I believe we're ready.

All right, Lee.

You want to go first?

Sure.

If I'm over, that will give me a chance to run back and put something back.

Start looking at what you like the least.

Okay.

$49.24 That█s pretty good.

Hey i█m proud of that.

My turn.

You know it█s amazing we actually got quite a bit of tackle for $49 Makes it right at $49.21.

Let█s do that.

We█re within a nickel of each other, Chad.

Yeah, that's pretty close.

I'll take that.

I got a whole bag of fun here.

Look, I could use these up in a couple weeks probably.

Now I'll go out there and get hung and break every one of them off in about 20 minutes.

In-line spinners, live bait, trout Bait.

We're in good shape.

So Lee, you've written a lot about fins lakes.

If you were wanting to get into fishing, how would you start on picking a lake and a time to do that?

Well, there's the axiom.

You go fishing when you can.

Yeah.

So, time-wise: now ‘til, you know, I think these would be a great late winter, early spring option before other things turn on.

I would go to our website.

If you go to the search bar in the top right of the Web page, you just put in “fins”, they'll take you to the Fins page.

Yeah, there's a link: “stocking schedule”.

Look on that stocking schedule.

That's why we're here today, is we know these have been recently stocked because we looked on the stocking schedule.

Also, the where to fish is a great thing.

If you're looking to fish anywhere, you can judge by county, by water body type, by access, by species.

I use it all the time in my research.

All right.

I think I'm going to make my way where all of the fish are being caught.

So let's just walk up there and give it a shot.

All right.

Lee, won't be long, we'll be hearing turkeys gobble.

I know.

So what have we got?

Looks like a trout.

There we go.

Switch over to the power bait and about my second cast, had a bite.

We're actually going to keep some of these today.

But this is about what size mostly stock trout are.

Somewhere around eight inches.

Rainbow trout.

Beautiful fish.

Chad caught one, that's nice.

See if we can get lucky.

Got him.

All right, is that a power bait fish?

Power bait, brother.

Nice.

It█s a good size for a stocker.

If you all intend to release trout, a rubber net is a great thing because it doesn't remove the slime coat like a nylon net will.

I█m going to grab my pliers, here.

I like to touch trout as little as I can, so I got him in the side like there.

Hook is out.

First bite of the day and it helps if you don't step on your rod.

That's a real good idea.

Oh, there we go.

Would you like my net?

I would, if you don't mind.

You lead him over.

I█ll get it.

Thank you.

All right.

Beautiful, rainbow trout.

Well Lee, today, It kind of took ourselves back a little bit.

Like we had really never fished.

Wanted to showcase that you don't need to go spend $5,000 to get into fishing.

All we needed to spend today was power bait.

I mean $25 in a rod and probably $6 in hooks, sinkers and power bait.

I mean, any day you catch a fish, it's a good day.

And we did get skunked.

It's been fun.

It's been a good time.

A real good time.

I haven█t done this a long time.

You know what?

I feel like a kid.

Yeah, I do, too.

But I haven't bobbin█ fish bait like this in a long, long time.

It's fun.

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 grandson Derek Hedrick with his grandfather, Bert Butler, from Barren County, who recently spent some quality time together on a successful deer hunt.

Nice job.

Here we have Ron Cletus, who's got a nice largemouth bass.

He said he's not going to let the cold water deter him from bass fishing.

Congratulations.

Here we have Brock with his 20 gauge shotgun holding his first ever rabbit.

Congratulations.

Here we have a beautiful photo that was submitted by Nick Baer of a sauger that was caught at the falls of the Ohio River.

Nice job.

Check out this beautiful photo of Gary Logsdon holding this grey fox that he took with the recurve bow in Grayson County.

Nice job.

January is a great month to get outdoors, do a little bit of walking and do some small game hunting.

And it's also a great way to introduce a new hunter to the outdoors.

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.