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 showcase all of our favorite activities when the weather turns cold.

Like crappie fishing, predator hunting, and first up, a unique deer hunt.

Well, we're down to the final few days of our modern firearm season.

I█m hunting with a pistol.

Now this pistol is complete open sites.

There's no laser, there's no scope.

So my range with this pistol is very similar to that of my bow.

So I need something at 30 yards or in.

So I've seen a lot of does in this spot in the past.

I feel pretty confident that hopefully we'll get one to come within range.

Man it's been such a dramatic change in the last 48 hours.

It went from really what felt like fall-like conditions.

Temperatures have dropped 20 degrees.

A lot of moisture in the air and about a 20 mile an hour wind, making hunting conditions a little tougher, even though temperatures in the 30s.

It actually feels much cooler.

I don█t know about that shot.

Shooting a pistol in this kind of area.

I don't know about that shot.

I tell you what, pistol hunting has its challenges.

Wind█s blowing.

Trees shaking.

I'm shaking.

We'll see what happens.

Well, it's probably been about 40, 45 minutes since my shot.

You know, the range on this pistol is very similar to a bow.

But the beautiful thing is, is that there's a lot of brush, kind of branchy, limbs between here and where the deer was at with this pistol, I don't have to worry about that as much.

With the bow I could never made that shot.

So there are some advantages.

I'm not positive what type of shot that was.

You know, shooting a pistol.

When you get out 25, 30 yards.

Everything has to be perfect.

So gave it some extra time.

I'm ready to walk down there now and see if I can locate where that deer is at And see if I actually hit the deer.

Fingers crossed.

Oh, look.

Look at all the hair.

Definite hit.

You can see that hair here.

And all the hair back over here.

First good sign.

Definitely made a hit, so hopefully I can start finding some blood.

The bad thing is, it's so thick.

I didn't get a real good visual where it was running, so I've got to look around here and try to pick up some blood.

There█s blood right here.

Something slid down through here.

All right, here's more.

More blood.

Here we go.

Oh, there she lays.

Right there.

Right on the edge of the field.

Man, this was a longer track than I thought.

You know, it's one of those things I'm shooting with a big, big caliber pistol.

But, you know, shooting a pistol is much like a bow in the fact that, you know, your accuracy is not going to be that of a high powered rifle.

I gave this deer plenty of time, and he covered a little bit of ground.

We're probably 250 yards.

Well, here she is.

This hunt█s been an interesting experience.

I'm seeing why this deer ran a little ways.

It wasn't a it wasn't a perfect shot.

I was kind of trying to put the shot right here.

And I missed about 4 or 5 inches back.

Still ended up with the humane kill.

It's been a great season.

You know, I took a deer early with my bow, took my buck with a rifle, finished off the gun season with a pistol.

This doe is going to be perfect in the freezer.

Winter here in Kentucky provides some great fishing opportunities, like crappie fishing.

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.

I know you've talked about big crappie here at Cave Run Lake that.

You know what seeing is believing and I have seen a bunch of them today.

We've we've had a good day, blessed day and plenty of big fish in this area, you know, just moved around a little bit.

And a lot of people overlook this winter bite and I suggest they get out here and weather these cold fronts and see if they can get on them.

Thank you so much for bringing this out and showing us how to do it.

Thanks for coming.

I appreciate Chad.

Great time.

Here at Kentucky Afield, we get super excited when that first snow hits the ground.

So that we can get outdoors for some predator hunting.

Well, Chase, as a coyote hunter, getting that first snow.

I love it.

Look at how well you can see out here.

Honestly, today, I just wanted to coyote hunt because of the snow.

Oh, it's perfect.

You know the great thing about coyote hunting too, even though we're sitting out here in the snow and it's freezing.

it's cold.

that we're going to be able to move.

We'll hunt for 20, 30 minutes and then we'll pick up and move a couple hundred yards and call again.

I actually wore less clothes today.

I mean, if I was deer hunting I'd be freezing, but I know we're going to be moving, so I'm trying- You know, I'm almost planning to be moving more than sitting still because it's about fifty-fifty.

You know, even though its so cold, we got out of our truck and first step or two I noticed that- oh, yeah, that's one beautiful thing about- It█s soft.

I prefer to walk across this than ice all day.

Today is one of those days is if you're a coyote, you might be going, “well, it's time to get out and find some food.” You want to go make them think they have an easy meal real quick?

Let█s do it.

Alright.

I mean, this is probably the best vantage point of the whole field, this right here where we█re at.

Put this Fox Pro about 50 yards away from us.

That way, when the coyotes are coming to the sound they█re looking where we aren█t, which helps us out a lot.

Are you taking a nap on me?

No, no i█m just- it's kind of a weird twist of my hips, you know, I feel fine right now, but I was like, i█m gonna- I thought you was going to shoot these like waterfowl.

Yeah.

When they come in, just pop up.

They█ll never see it coming.

Let's see if we can█t make them come in and investigate something.

Like I said, I going to start off with something a little simpler.

So at this point, we're hunting and there could be a coyote on the way so.

And like I said I'm just going to watch this tree line to the left because if something pops up there, It's going to be quick.

Alright, we█re just going to go about 3 minutes of this next call.

Are you going to play a fighting call?

Yeah, well, I've been doing like challenge howls and barks.

And so this next one█s just going to kind of be a distress.

Onto the next one?

What do you think?

Yup, ready to move.

That's a really fresh set of coyote tracks coming through here.

You don't think that was this morning while we were calling, do you?

Possibly.

Because you can see how these tracks get soft when they've been here for a while, but the fresher ones are still sharp and crisp like that.

So, I mean, they could have come through when we were calling and we just didn█t see them, you know?

Oh yeah.

But I mean those are fresh set.

it looks like there's two coyotes to me.

One, two.

This This is the set that I was most excited about.

You guys ready?

Alright, we█re coyote hunting now.

There█s one.

it's in the other field, see it?

it's going across the top of that other field.

Oh, was that a coyote?

It was a coyote.

Was he crossing toward us or away?

I- it might have come down here and got close and winded us or seen us because it was going- it might still pop out, but it wasn't coming straight towards the call.

It was kind of going down the field but it was 100% a coyote.

Oh, coyotes.

Two, two, two.

Where?

Oh yeah.

That's about 300 yards, Chad.

400.

Yeah its way out there.

You tell me when.

Ah its- it's going to be- That's too far right now we're just gonna see if they come, Chad.

Well we█ve seen three and gotten zero shots.

Those last two were just too far.

like when I saw them they were moving pretty fast in the field.

I thought, Oh, here we go.

I think they saw something they didn█t like, I think they saw us.

I thought they were going to come right down the middle on us.

Not worried about the wind at all.

It's really weird.

You know, I'm not a big coyote hunter, but the more i█m spending time coyote hunting- coyote hunting is kind of a mixture of hunting and fishing.

You pick your spots and then you choose your lure.

That's only part of the game.

Yeah you got to let them see it and you got to- Then they gotta come to it and get in range and then starts the whole process of set it and then bring it in.

Yeah we missed the hook set on this one.

Yeah.

Oh, oh, there he is!

Where is it, where is it at?

In the woods, in the woods.

Oh i see it.

It's going to wind us.

Is he down?

I got it.

I picked out a gap in front of him where he was going to walk through at and he walked straight into my crosshairs.

Well, I had this tree to deal with, and- I just figured at that point, Chad, I wanted- I just figured it was whoever gets a shot shoots.

Oh, yeah, no, I was 100% cool with that.

And we'd already stood up and went to walk out and I looked up- That was a good eye by you, by the way, to pick that thing out coming through there.

Would have never seen it had it not been for the snow.

Let's go see what you got.

Oh, I see it.

See the coyote?

It's a- somehow it got up in those briars.

It looks like it's already been taxidermied.

Got its canines showing.

He didn't want us to be able to get it out of there, did it?

Chase, i█m gonna let you retrieve that coyote on your own.

Well, thank you, Chad.

See if I can get it up on that log there.

Good winter coat, big fluffy tail, no mange or anything.

Well Chase, A lot of coyote sets are different, but this was about as untypical of a coyote hunt I think I've ever been on.

That was probably the longest into a stand I've ever taken a coyote and probably the longest I've sat on a stand.

We literally stand up to start gathering our gear and I see this thing run through and i█m like, “Oh!” And when I go down and get on the shooting sticks here, I've got a big tree right there beside me.

You were able to move and you saw it, were able to get a shot.

At that point in time, we're like 40 minutes after we'd started calling.

Well, last time I looked at the remote before I put it down.

It has- the Fox Pro remotes have a timer on them.

It was at 38:30.

Yeah.

So over 38 minutes in so the shot was probably taken around the 40 minute mark.

With a little bit of patience, a little bit of luck.

You were able to put it down.

Heck, yeah.

Good eyes by the way.

Oh, well, nice shot.

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 11 year old Ashton Litchfield from Woodford County with his very first rabbit.

This rabbit was taken while hunting behind his beagle named Lacey.

Nice job.

Check out this wild looking ten point piebald buck that was taken in Pendleton County by Rob Siebert.

Nice deer.

Check out this really interesting palmated buck that was taken by Tom Robinson in Garrard County.

This deer was affectionately named moose.

Check out Lulu Howard as she took her very first waterfowl duck over the weekend.

Nice job.

Here we have eight year old Waylon Holloway holding his fourth rabbit of his day, his first limit.

Nice job.

Nathan Turner took this beautiful buck in Lincoln County on the opening day of modern gun season.

Congrats.

Eight year old Luke Mattingly took his very first turkey this fall in Breckenridge County with a crossbow.

Are you a muzzleloader hunter?

Well, don't forget the late season here in Kentucky runs from December the 14th through the 22nd.

Good luck.

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.