Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

Join us as we journey the Commonwealth in search of outdoor adventure.

This week, we're going to beat the heat and do a little bass fishing at night.

Then we're going to catch up with biologist on Red River Gorge and find out how they get trout into some tricky situations.

But first, we're hitting the Elkhorn Creek in search of smallmouth.

The summertime is a great time to be out on the water here in Kentucky, but it can present some challenges with extreme summer heat.

It don't mean I have to stay in the house.

There are some ways that you can combat the summertime heat, and a few of those are fishing at night, fishing that first couple of hours in the morning or in the evening, or like I'm going to do today.

And that is float a stream.

Gives you the opportunity to be on the moving water.

You can get wet if you need to step in.

You can do that.

We've chosen a stream today here on the Elkhorn, where I have permission to get out and can actually get wet and stand on the bottom and continue fishing.

A few things you need to consider when being out this time of year.

First off, make sure that the water is the right level to navigate.

If the water is brown and it's churned up, you probably don't want to go.

It's an unsafe condition.

Today we're looking at about 400 cfs, a little higher than I like to fish it, but it's very safe to be on.

Second, make sure you have a PFD.

I'm going to be wearing a PFD at all times, and I actually have a backup PFD that's going to be in the in the boat with me at all times in case I need it.

The other thing to consider is proper hydration and protection from the sun.

I have a cooler here that's full of water, and I will probably go through every single one of them today.

I also have sunscreen.

I'm going to be putting sunscreen all over.

So these are all some of the things that you really want to consider when fishing from a stream in a kayak where you're on the water.

Fishing this way can be a lot of fun.

It can be super productive, and there are tons of opportunities here in Kentucky.

Hopefully today we can locate some fish and hopefully catching smallmouth bass, long eared sunfish, Kentucky spotted bass, maybe large mouth, a little bit of everything out here.

So I'm super excited.

Floating is one of my absolute favorite ways to fish in the summertime.

It's a great way to catch fish and stay cool.

And there are a million ways to fish out here on a creek and stream like this.

I'm throwing minnow and crawfish imitators on single hooks, but small crankbaits topwater bait, live bait fishing.

There's so many different ways you can do it.

As we pulled up a guy had a pretty decent little smallmouth that he actually caught on top water.

These are exactly the kind of spots that I like to look for here on Elkhorn Creek.

In any other creek, when I'm fishing, when I can find areas where water is coming down and turning and running back upstream.

These are great areas to hold smallmouth bass and other fish.

The reason being the bait is doing the exact same thing that the current█s doing.

It gets pushed down it circles and comes back around making it all confused.

Easy targets for predator fish.

Got something on.

What we got here?

Oh, it's a nice smallmouth bass.

Lookie there.

This is why you stream fish now.

Obviously on Lake Cumberland, you█d go, “Well, it's a little bitty fish,” and you wouldn't think twice about it, but when you start catching 12 inch fish and they get bigger.

But when you start catching 12 inch fish, you can see what type of fight they put up in that current.

Beautiful smallmouth bass.

This is my favorite fish species, to target in the state of Kentucky.

And anytime I can get out on a day like this and catch these sitting here in the shade, nice and cool, that's a good summer day right there.

Here we go.

I'll tell you what.

These will give you a fight like catching a five pounder on a on a big bait caster in 20 pound test.

Look at their beautiful smallmouth bass.

Beautiful hard fighting fish right there.

Here we go.

Even this little fish in this current and pulling this drag.

Another smallmouth bass.

Man, they were in that eddy, and now they're.

They're also just stacked in this water right here, and it's really moving.

I don't know, but I'm guessing it's 15in deep or less.

And, these fish are just sitting in here taking advantage of this real fast current.

More oxygen.

Cooler water gives them the opportunity to get in there and catch that bait fish that█s a little disoriented.

Little Elkhorn Creek, small mouth, and I mean little.

Oh, I missed him.

Came back and hit it, though.

Got him that time.

He ain't much, but he sure pulled me out of my bush here.

Last couple have been all the same.

Little.

These are just so common here in Elkhorn Creek.

Beautiful little fish.

And like I say, if you bring the right type of tackle and you fish light enough, they still put up a good fight.

So, so far, this is what I've been throwing.

And when I'm on the creek, I'm either going to throw a, minnow imitator.

This is a little three inch soft plastic swim bait on a eighth ounce head.

Now I change up the weights depending on how much current I got.

And for this, it keeps me close enough to the bottom without being hung up all the time.

Nothing super special.

Many different colors will work.

Eight ounce head on a three inch swim bait.

Got him.

There we go.

Look at that beautiful fish.

So I caught a couple fish here on a swim bait.

And, you know, I sometimes like to try different tackle and different lures.

Well, I've got the most one of the most common.

Lures known to any bass fisherman, but in a very, very small creek size.

And that is.

This is a tiny brush hog.

Literally.

That's how they describe them.

If you've, if you're a bass fisherman, you've probably seen the brush hog the big brush hog, which is really big bait, the baby brush hog, which is about half the size of that.

And then this, which is half or more or less of that.

But this is a great little bait if you want to do a crawfish imitator, a brush hog in the tiny version is a great little creek bait.

Oh, lookie there.

A rock bass.

Oh!

Oh, what have we got here?

Sure hope that this is a small mouth.

Oh, my goodness.

What in the world have I got?

I don't know what this is, but I gotta keep putting line back on the spool because he's taking it off.

Looky there.

not exactly what I was after, but Lord have mercy.

Was that a was that a fight?

Oh my gosh.

That's a good little spot right here.

I'll tell you what.

The next day you're sitting in the house and you go, man, it's too hot to do anything whatsoever.

A couple options to catch a fish.

One's at night, but one of the best is to get on a stream, take plenty of water, get your legs wet.

Stay cool.

Stay in the shade.

Just catch smallmouth all day.

Summertime bass fishing can present some tricky situations here in Kentucky between hot temperatures and boat traffic.

Sometimes the best time to fish is at night.

Well, if I seem a little more excited and a little more giddy tonight, it's because I'm on one of my absolute all time favorite lakes fishing with one of my lifelong fishing partners, Jorod Swift.

How you doing?

Great.

Wonderful.

Dale Hallow what's this lake mean to you?

I've been fishing a long time since I was nine or ten years old.

And a lot of memories and just a wonderful fishery and get down here with you and chase some brownies around.

I█m pretty stocked.

Oh, yeah.

It's going to be.

It's going to be a fun night.

you know what?

The plan is to be here until daylight, maybe even get on the top water bite.

If everything lays down, We're going to try to get our line Stretch.

Let's go make it happen.

Find some brownies.

Let's do it.

That wasn't a good hook set, but he█s on there.

oh he come off right there, literally right there.

Here we go.

That's two bites.

Yeah.

I found that little bit of grass.

He hit it pretty good.

Yeah.

Oh, that's a quick release.

You're already going with the nighttime color in the daylight, so.

Hey, it's working.

Right?

There you go.

They█re playing tricks on us Cha I ain't set the hook hard enough Playing tricks on us.

Oh, come back.

Oh, he got him that time.

If I had to set the hook any harder, I'd throw my back out.

Largemouth.

Well shake that thing off.

What do you know now?

I know the first one I have was a smallmouth.

We saw yours.

It was a small mouth.

Now we finally get one to the boat, and it's a large mouth.

Hey, I'll take it.

There we go guys!

Well, you know what I love catching the largemouth bass, but I believe that's two bites in a row have been the wrong color.

We're being invested by the green, the green fish.

Enough of that.

Oh, Got him?

well.

You got another green one.

Well, this is becoming a problem.

We usually come down here for the other color bass.

But they're all fun to catch aren't they?

They are.

Oh, Got him?

small mouth Sure is.

There you go.

The old Blue Bug.

Actually I Switched up to a little Rattling Jig.. Blue chatter bait It looks like that.

What you got?

Yeah.

There you go.

First was our first smallie in the boat?

The first one in the boat.

There you go.

Nice job, buddy.

Thank you.

That█s what we came down here for?

Yeah.

Uh oh.

It█s the old google eye magic.

Told you.

That right there is then reason you come to Dale Hollow.

you come to Dale Hollow for the old google eye fest.

That█s a eater there.

Yeah, he█s a little one.

Oh, wow.

Look at that giant.

Break out the circle hook.

I'll tell you what it's like.

It's got a bunch of these in here, and they like that grass, too.

They'll get in there and they'll hit a little jig like that coming across the top.

Get you excited Here we go.

He ain't big, but I got him.

we didn't know what was hitting this.

We just knew we were getting bites.

It is a small mouth.

There you go.

He hit it as soon as it hit the water.

And that's what they're coming out of.

Yeah.

Yep.

Right out, right out of that grass.

That's.

I mean, that's the grass you want right there with that in there.

That's exactly where they're at right there.

And Oh my gosh.

Yeah, yeah.

That boat enjoys our spot, dude, he is that that pontoon right there is in four feet of water Welp, I think we can move now we probably are done fishing was good right there until this guy decided to go in four feet of water between us and the bank.

Well, you know, takes all types, huh?

It does.

Here█s a good fish.

Maybe I'm crazy.

I don't know.

Oh my goodness!

I think that fish is, That must be a large mouth.

Yeah that is a large mouth.

Like, am I sleep or am I?

What are going to grab this for me chad?

Yep.

That█s a wake up call.

Look at that.

That's a good look on that little.

That little hair jig, a little jig that notoriously you had it hooked really good.

Notorious for small mouth fishing.

But you know what?

If it looks like a shad, large mouth eat it too.

That's a good one.

You know, this fish came in like a log or a stick.

You didn't even know for sure if you had a fish.

very nice.

There you go There we go.

two in a row.

Another largy?

I don█t know.

There you go.

Cool deal.

You know what that was back to back cast.

We have been kind of struggling the last a little bit, and we moved more shallow, which might be why we're catching large mouth.

But the fact is, we're not finding in small mouth, out in the grass mats on the main lake.

So we came in and low and behold back to back cast cut to pretty good large mouth.

Hey, tonight, beggars can't be choosers.

We█ll take it, we█ll take it.

Hey, thank you Got him that time.

large mouth, stinking large mouth.

What do you know?

Catching to many large mouth today.

This is a spot I thought maybe, just maybe, would get in here, catch a smallie.

Oh, do you get bit?

You know, not a bad fish, though.

large mouth, small mouth eat the same thing.

Apparently, the blue blue trigger crawl.

Stretch your string.

There you go.

Not bad.

Oh, got him?

There you go still not the size we█re looking for, but it█s the It's the action we're looking for.

You know, we kept saying last night, you know, if we can make it till morning, there's a chance we may get a top water bite.

It█s that time of year.

There you go.

What do we got here.

One of those.

That might be the smallest small mouth I've ever caught on top water.

But you know what?

They're all fun when you see them blow up on a lure like that.

A lot of fun.

There you go.

Quick release.

lot of bait here.

Got him.

could be that fish that just jumped.

Nice.

Big old Brownie we█ll take it.

Big Brownie.

There█s a double.

You got him?

Yeah.

Another big one out here.

There you go.

Little double action right here.

Morning time and mine█s poorer.

But, uh, long.

But it looks like he's on the decline.

Looks like they need a meal, huh?

But they were hungry.

Yeah, but you know what, though?

That's why you stay till daylight had a little bit of a lull last night all of sudden it's pick back up and the old brown fish are biting again.

Hey, look at that bait pod right there in front of us.

Get ready.

Here we go.

large mouth.

Look at that little bitty bitty hooks I got that thing on.

There you go.

Now, that's a healthy fish.

Those smallies is were a little thin, they got a little size to him.

Little pretty thick across the back.

That's pretty good fish.

uh oh, uh oh Brownie.

Big old brownie.

I think I got it.

Look at that.

What a pretty fish.

I'll tell you what.

This helps scratch my itch a little bit.

I█ll probably have to come down one more time and night.

Fish.

Maybe go to Cumberland and try to do the same thing.

But you know what?

November will be here before you know it.

Hopefully I have a deer or two in the freezer and get down here and really target some big, big, fat brown fish.

The next time you take a hiking trip in Red River Gorge, you may want to consider taking a fishing pole.

Some of the streams have trout.

Thanks to the hard work of our biologists.

So we are down in the Red River Gorge, and we're getting ready to stock rainbow trout here, specifically today into Chimney Top Creek and a couple weeks ago we backpacked trout into Swift Camp Creek, and we also stopped them into East Fork, Indiana, Middle Fork Red River.

We do that because really, there's no easier way to get them down in the creek.

You know, these these fish need to be in water the whole time.

We can't drive the truck right down to the creek.

So putting them in in a bag with water and hiking them down is the next best option.

The journey of these fish really starts at Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery.

There our federal partners in this.

They raise the fish.

And what happens in this particular instance today is, a couple of guys out of my office drove from Moorhead all the way down to Wolf Creek Dam, picked up these fish, and now they're bringing them all the way back to Red River Gorge.

When they get up here, we're going to look at the data, see the number of fish in a pound of fish.

And that kind of tells us how many fish we need to put in a bag.

We count those out into a bucket.

We put it into a plastic bag pump pure oxygen in that plastic bag, seal it off with some castration bands, which prevents any air from getting in and hopefully any air or water from escaping.

they're put on your back And then from there, the clock is ticking.

And we got to get them down to the stream as quick as we can and got to get them out into the water as quick as we can.

These backpacking trips are fun for a lot of folks.

You know, we get a lot of folks from the department and volunteers from different hunting and angling groups, community colleges that sort of stuff that come out and help us because it's a unique opportunity where you get to put fish on your back and hike them down and release them into streams.

And in the past, we've gotten with different state agencies like Department of Juvenile Justice has brought kids out to do this before angling groups like Bluegrass Trout Unlimited.

Today here at Chimney Top, we have, one of the community colleges is coming out.

And then also the backcountry hunters and anglers are coming out to help us today, really without the help of the volunteers we can't do this.

You know, we just don't have enough staff, in my office, especially to to handle stocking these, several hundred fish we█re about to stop today.

I've been fly fishing since I was 18 years old.

My, interests have always revolved around being outside in nature.

And, it's wonderful to fish.

It's even more wonderful to to get into the backcountry a bit and be able to have an experience alone in the water.

Kentucky Afield had done a program several years back about the few streams in the state that require hiking the fish in.

So for the last several years, I've been trying to get on board and meet with the volunteers and find a chance to, to pack in fish myself.

It's a really neat experience, and I certainly hope to do it again.

I think I'll just keep popping the events on my calendar and come whenever I can From there, those fish, because they've been raised our whole lives at Wolf Creek Hatchery, they they naturally are schooling up together, and they just kind of stay together in this big mass for a little while.

But slowly, through the course of the rest of today and definitely into tomorrow, they█ll split up and kind of get out on their own and start adapting to that, wild diet.

Why put all this effort in?

for those adventure anglers.

These aren't your normal pull up walk ten steps, cast a line and you go put some effort and you got to, hike down to these streams.

You got to do some research.

You got to be quiet.

The reward for your effort is not only just the fish, but just the beauty of what's around us.

These are unique opportunities, not necessarily just for us in the Northeast District, but unique across the state.

You know, there's there's only one Red River gorge, and there's only a handful of the streams that we stock.

It's an opportunity for us to, you know, reach another group of our constituents as far as anglers go.

Now let's check in and see who else has been out having fun in this week's ones that didn't get away.

Check out four year old Zane Allen in this nice smallmouth bass that he caught on Lake Cumberland using a white paddle tail swim bait.

Nice job.

Check out this smile on three year old Eliana Crane's face.

She caught this beautiful largemouth bass while fishing at Green River Lake.

Congratulations.

Here we have five year old Henry Hogue with a nice bass that he caught on light panfish tackle while fishing in Boone County.

Make sure you mark your calendars for next Monday night, July the 28th at 7:00 for our live question and answer show all about Kentucky Wild.

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.