This week on Kentucky Afield, Chad actually invited me the voice of the show out on the boat.

So we're on the Ohio River, just seeing what we can catch.

Next, most people think of fire as being destructive, but in the eyes of a wildlife biologist or anyone concerned with habitat, it's actually quite the opposite.

Then we're breaking out the kayaks and hitting the water for some summertime fun.

It's all next on Kentucky Afield.

Hello and welcome to Kentucky, Your Field.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

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

The Ohio River running the entire north part of the state provides tons of fishing access, including some of its tributaries.

I█ll tell you what, Chase.

Late March, we're sitting in the office.

Had no plans today.

Wasn't planning on being out filming.

But you can't give up a day like this in the spring.

It's beautiful, beautiful day.

We literally just said, hey, what's a close boat ramp that we can go and take our chance to just catch something.

A little bit of research and we thought we might have something here so.

Really all we did was look and see if the river was fishable.

And it is.

We don't have any plans on what we're going to catch.

We're just going to go fishing.

You know, you got a day like this, you got some sun out.

It's been kind of warm.

Water temperature looks like it's above 50 degrees.

You never know what you█re going to catch out here.

Let's just go give it a try and see what we catch.

As long as it's a fish, I'll take it.

Anything.

Yeah, well, I'm with you.

You know, we've done catfish shows, we've done crappie shows, we've done hybrid shows.

We've done them all out on the Ohio River.

All of those are available.

Sometimes it's not what's available.

It's what's willing.

We█re to go see if the fish ain't willing to bite and see what we can catch.

Let's do it.

All right.

We just saw this creek has got a lot cleaner water in it.

Pulled up in here.

You know, we both know that white bass a lot of times will make a run.

And this is a little warmer than the main lake.

So I'm got my normal little, very small white bass swim bait on here and see if I can't pick something up.

What are you going to start with?

I've got a rattle trap tied on right now.

Bluegill rattle trap.

Thinking the same thing.

Any river fish that made their way up into this creek might be looking for a bluegill like snack.

You know, something they would find in the creek.

You know how the river is.

You never know.

They might be out there in the midst of the hardest current you can find.

But I like this place to start.

Come on and break.

There we go.

Hey, if the water comes up five feet, I think I can grab it.

There we go.

What do you got?

White.

White bass?

White bass.

Hey, they usually travel in numbers.

School, baby.

School.

And that's a pretty good white bass, too.

I'll take it.

There you go.

You know what, Chad?

What's that?

This is my first fish of 2024.

What?

Are you serious?

Good.

A white bass is not a bad way to start out though that█s for sure.

They█re one of my favorite fish.

Sweet.

One for the cooler.

There we go.

Bigger fish.

Much bigger fish.

Oh.

Is that a white?

It's a hybrid.

I was going to say that fish looks a little too big.

Yeah, that's a hybrid.

Look at the body profile.

How it's a little bit elongated.

It's a hybrid.

Sweet.

All right.

We've found something here, Chad.

Both the fish I've caught have been between this tree and where that water's coming in over there.

Right there.

We may have locked on to something here.

Let's see.

There you go.

Oh, man.

Good one?

Sweet.

Just hammered it.

This day and age, it's how slow can you reel it and not hit the bottom?

That's the key.

Keep it off the bottom and just reel it super super slow.

My favorite little white bass lure.

I also catch crappie on these.

I hope there█s a bunch in here.

There you go.

Another one.

Back to back cast.

There you go.

I went two out of three.

You went back to back.

This is good.

They're all pretty good size.

Look at it.

Look at that fish in there.

Back to back cast.

Real slow on the bottom.

That█s where they█re at.

Hey, these are really nice size, healthy white bass right there.

What do you think 14 inch fish?

Something like that?

I█d say so it's a eater fish.

If you caught that in most places, you'd be really, really happy with it.

Oh yeah.

Beautiful fish.

Let's put it in.

Oh, there we go.

I was going to say I'm on a cold streak, but guess what.

That's a good one.

Cold no more.

That's a good fish there.

He's a little fatter.

We fished all the way up through here and didn't get a bite.

And then all of a sudden it's like bam, bam, bam.

So they may be completely full for a couple hundred yard stretch of this river.

Oh, yeah.

We're about to smack these fish.

Come on.

This one's a little smaller.

Oh, maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe I'm wrong.

It looks pretty good to me, Chad.

I got my drag set where he can't break this 6 pound test hopefully.

I may be lying.

Oh, man, that was a good fish.

I saw him right here.

Yeah, this fish are into making liars out of us today.

There you go.

There we go.

If I can just grab this hook, these hybrids, man, these whites, they flop so much.

Well, this one only had my bait in his mouth, Chad.

So sorry about that.

That's about the size of the fish that I think I just broke off.

Beautiful little fish.

There you go.

Good fish?

He's the laziest looking white bass I've ever seen.

Nice.

He's a little smaller than what we█ve been catching, but we'll take it.

Plenty big.

Just such a beautiful.

Oh, oh, or maybe he's not big enough.

That is the luckiest fish.

Look at that muskrat right there on the bank, Chad.

Like a big chipmunk.

Or a tiny beaver.

I don't know what he's doing.

Down here in this park, he's probably used to seeing people.

He don't look worried about us does he?

No.

I don't want to eat him do you?

I have no interest.

I'd rather catch these fish.

There we go.

Oh, a little guy.

It's a large mouth or spot.

Large mouth.

A spotted bass, actually.

Yeah.

Spot.

What do you know?

A little bit of everything.

Look at those eyes on that thing.

Got those spawning eyes.

Yeah sure does.

Take a little structure out of the water.

Saving my bait.

It's a little better fish.

All right.

It's pretty good one, right.

A good one yeah.

We'll take it.

Good fish.

Got him.

Feel like a good one?

Feels pretty good.

Oh.

What is this?

You don't know what it is?

A small mouth.

A smallie.

It's all marked up.

It's a good looking fish.

There you go.

Looky there.

This is our second black bass species, smallmouth bass.

Look at that.

Nice fish.

That's a good looking fish, man.

Yeah, I fish here all the time I never catch them.

Just something about you, man.

There he goes.

I don't know what this is.

He ain't near as big.

Oh, man.

With our first really small white bass.

We're gonna let this one go back.

We aint caught any small ones.

And I█ll tell you, a lot of time when you come up here, you catch a lot of these early on until the big females move up.

First one we've caught today.

What do we got this looks like another little one.

Yeah, sure is.

Next year's fish.

Got him?

This feels like the same thing you just had.

Sauger!

Sauger.

Look at that little cigar fish.

Too bad he's not about 2 pounds.

He'll get bigger right?Yeah.

I hope so.

I don't know what this is.

I think it's a good one.

It's a pretty decent fish.

I might have you grab the net just because I've got 4 pound test on here.

That's a good fish.

I think it's a white.

Yeah, it's a white.

Nice white.

Nice.

There you go.

Thank you.

Of course.

There we go.

Good fat fish.

That's what we're after right there.

Look at that.

You don't normally hear white bass referred to as footballs, but that thing looks like a football.

That's a good one.

That's a good fish right there.

Just crushed it.

Oh, there's one.

Crappie, Chad.

Well chase.

I can't think of a better way to spend a March afternoon with nothing else planned than to come out here and do this.

It was fun.

We just literally eased up a creek and just went back and watched temperature and watched the sonar throwing little bitty swim baits.

Turns out we caught a ton of different species, and we've got a pretty good mess of white bass and a crappie.

Thanks for let me tag along and I'm looking forward to do it again sometime soon.

Sounds great man.

Habitat management has been taking place here in North America for thousands of years, and you may be surprised to know how they did it.

Today we're out here at the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and I'm with small game biologist, Cody Rhoden.

Cody, just four short weeks ago, this whole field right here was on fire, wasn't it?

Yeah, Chad that's right.

So four weeks ago, we kind of try to practice what we preach here at Fish and Wildlife.

And so we preach habitat message here, native habitat, native plants, native animals.

And part of that messaging has to do with manipulating the environment in a natural way.

Right.

And the most natural way we as humans can possibly do that is with fire.

So Kentucky is actually very much a fire landscape.

So humans have been burning the state of Kentucky for the last 3000 years or so.

Most of the species we consider native, and most of the species that we wish to conserve in the state can actually deal with prescribed fire.

So when we start talking about a long time, we're talking way before Europeans came that that the landscape has been burned.

People from long time ago saw the benefits of fire.

Yeah, definitely.

So about 3000 years ago, native people stopped roaming around in these bands and they started setting in one spot.

And so if you imagine you're a native person 2000 years ago and you're sitting down in one place in eastern Kentucky or central Kentucky, and the grass is getting high, you know, there's a lot of ticks around.

What tools do you have to manipulate the landscape around you?

And fire was pretty much the only tool they had that could manipulate the landscape on a large scale, and they used it a bunch.

You're not using the tractors, you're not using the sprays and the chemicals in which all those can be used effectively.

But fire has a more lasting effect on the landscape, and it's a positive effect.

It's natural.

Right.

Exactly.

And it█s cheaper.

Oh, it's way cheaper.

Yeah.

And so the mechanical and chemical means that we utilize to manipulate the habitat around us.

Essentially it's just emulating prescribed fire.

So we can see here this was fescue many years ago.

And then we planted it to native plants.

And the only thing we've been doing to this every single year, has been burning it for the last 5 or 10 years.

And so it's a native practice for native plants.

And again, it's very much a lot cheaper.

As a biologist you look at what we're standing in and go, okay, here's some potential for habitat right?

Yes, yes.

As far as small game habitat and essentially habitat for any species, we seek to conserve in the state of Kentucky.

You know, if they couldn't deal with fire, they wouldn't be here because, again, native people burned for 3000 years.

That was long enough to shift the fauna and flora that exists in the state today towards fire tolerant species.

So we're standing here, we're looking back.

We can see bare dirt and honestly, that bare dirt in a couple months, we won't be able to see that.

The plants will grow up and form a herbaceous canopy over the top.

You'll still have that bare ground in there.

So quail chicks can run around in it, baby rabbits can get around in it, and animals have that herbaceous cover, so hawks and stuff can't see them, but they can run around in that habitat and move around and get bugs and other things like that.

Butterflies, rabbits, birds, you name it.

Yeah, all of that wildlife is going to prefer this over the beautiful landscape lawns, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

And honestly, if we can do it here, I think it can be done on a vast majority of our almost 4 million acres of open land in the state.

We got here a while ago, and we've walked in just a few feet of this, and you already found a nest where a rabbit has raised its young.

And this is four weeks ago.

This was on fire.

Exactly.

So that rabbit has since then found that as a suitable location, put a nest in raised young and they are off on the landscape.

Literally right there.

Right there.

And again, you know, four weeks ago this was all black.

It kind of looked like a moonscape.

And these plants, they're fire adaptive.

They count on fire as a part of their life history.

And so they sprung right up for burning off that thatch.

All the trash above the ground.

You burn that off.

The new plants are ready to come up.

So, Jacob, we just heard about all the benefits to burning your landscape here.

And this obviously at the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

So this is on state properties.

This is not just for state properties.

This can be done on individual home farms as well right?

Oh yes, Chad that's a great point.

We burned here on our property.

And we also like to support private landowners, in getting this on their properties.

Through the private lands program.

We have 17 biologists across the state that can help you set up a plan to get this done effectively and safely meet the wildlife goals that you are looking to meet.

We work with the Kentucky Prescribed Fire Council to put on landowner courses to teach you how to do this safe and effectively, which allows you to come on fires with us and do learn and burns.

We support landowners to do this, because at the end of the day, we have somewhere about 20 million acres of private land in the state of Kentucky that could use this as a management tool.

And obviously we can't do all that.

We need some help from the private landowners to get that done.

We're not telling people to go out in their backyard right now and throw some diesel out and set it on fire.

There are steps that need to be taking place.

Reach out to your private lands biologist with the Department of Fish and Wildlife and learn how you can get involved.

So our goal is to train people.

We have a process to get you to become a burn boss that allows you to burn within the state of Kentucky.

And again, the whole goal of this is, is not to just send people out there and just do this.

There is a safe and effective way to do these fires.

And we're here to help you and support you along that way.

So where does a person start?

I mean, if they're sitting at home and whatever county they may live in the state of Kentucky, they're like, I'm not sure, but this may benefit my property.

Where do they start?

So first off, they can either go to our website and go to find my private lands biologist.

Send in a request for a visit.

They can come out and talk to you about it.

And then we have a, the Kentucky Prescribed Fire Council has a website.

It's kentuckyfire.org.

And you go on there and look at trainings and you can sign up for information on when those would be.

We've got to see on this particular burn here how quickly it goes from black to green and beautiful.

And that has to do with time of year you do most of your burning, right?

That's correct.

A lot of the open land burns we do are in the late winter or early spring, and it times up perfect that it burns, the green up comes and you get a flush of new growth.

Now, depending on what your management goals are, we may say we want to burn a different time of year to get different responses.

Hey, you want to get ahead of the curve and you want to get your place looking good?

Yeah, maybe go get trained up and set it on fire.

Exactly.

Well, thank you so much.

Hopefully many of the landowners take advantage of this because as an outdoor person and outdoor enthusiast and animal lover, this is how it happens, right here.

It's a win.

Yeah, it's a win.

Now that summer is here this is a perfect time of year to break out the kayak and do a float and fishing trip.

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.

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.

I know this thing█s full of smallmouth.

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.

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 Hannah Walsh, who caught this nice Ohio River hybrid bass while fishing on Mother's Day.

Check out Italy Anne as she's posing here with her second turkey of the season.

Nice job.

Here we have a familiar face.

It's Cassidy Cornett, who is an educator at the Salato Wildlife Education Center.

She took her first turkey and it happened to have two beards.

Nice job.

Check out this nice largemouth bass that was taken by Tony Sweasy at Green River Lake.

This fish was caught on a swim bait head with an imitation minnow.

Nice job.

12 year old William Newton took this beautiful turkey in Grayson County.

The bird weighed 27 pounds and had a 11 inch beard.

Nice job.

Here we have Vernon Bennett with his personal best blue catfish at over 50 pounds caught from Barren River Lake.

This fish was caught using cut shad.

Congratulations.

The kids are out of school.

Make plans to get them outdoors this summer.

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.