This week on Kentucky Afield.

It's one of those special fishing trips that only comes around every so often.

We're catching trophy smallmouth, white bass and striped bass on the Tennessee River.

Then it's one of the best times of the year here in the Commonwealth.

It's turkey season, and we're hunting them.

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.

If you fish Kentucky, chances are you have been to Kentucky Lake or Lake Barkley.

But when you head west, don't forget about the great fishing opportunities below the dams.

Today is one of those days I really look forward to, and that's hitting the river down here in western Kentucky with Jim Doom.

How you doing today?

I'm good.

How are you doing?

I'm good.

You know, this is the time of year that you just told me a date and we said, let's make it happen.

But you know what?

Any time you come to the river, you've got to be ready to catch whatever whatever the river will give you.

Right.

Yeah.

We'll throw some swim bait.

And if I don't work, we'll catch some live bait and try that.

Let's go give it a try and see what we can't luck into.

I noticed you brought your fishing buddy with you today, too.

Yeah.

She wouldn't let me leave the house without her this morning.

I mean, look at that face.

Who could leave that at home?

All right, well, let's roll.

Go ahead.

Which way we going here?

That way?

Yeah.

Just start fishing.

Here we go.

I don█t know what it is.

I believe that may be a small mouth.

You think so?

If not, It could be a striper.

No its a smallmouth.

Well, what do you know?

Oh that█s a good one.

Look at that, smallmouth bass.

I'll tell you what, people travel all over the place to try to catch them a three and a half pound smallie like that, huh?

Look at that beautiful fish.

Now, these are some of my absolute favorite fish to catch.

But I'll tell you what.

I couldn't bring myself to eat one of these for $1,000,000.

This one█s going back.

Here we go.

Another smallmouth.

It█s what it looks like.

Smallmouth.

Man, and he wanted it.

Look at that, spittin█ up shad.

Another good fish.

Look at there.

What a beautiful fish.

What do you want?

Want a treat?

Here we go.

Think i█m going to have to steal one of those little green baits.

Hey, I got a pocket full of them here.

What do we got this time?

Looks like another small mouth again.

Oh, a buffalo.

Maybe I don't want one of them green baits.

That's not exactly what we were going for, wasn't it?

He ate it.

Ellie, that's more your style right there, girl.

All right.

See you later.

Here we go.

I tell you what.

Man, this is small mouth here.

This is a better fish here, giving this reel a workout in this current.

Oh, looky here.

Now what?

That's a striper.

What do you know?

Sitting here, four casts in a row, three different species of fish, and now we've got a striper.

What do you think, Ellie?

Jim, What's the length limit on these?

15 inches?

I believe this is going to make it.

I think he'll make it.

Uh oh.

What do you got?

Don't look, found another rock.

So, you know, the length limit for striper changes on different bodies of water.

But here you say it's 15 inches.

And what are you allowed?

What are you allowed?

Five.

Five of them?

Five striper.

We'll see what we got here.

Because if that thing is a keeper, I'll tell you what.

It doesn't get much better eatin█ than this right here, does it?

Some good stuff.

22 inches, I believe that's a good one.

You think we'll keep it?

If you don't, I will.

Small mouth and stripers?

What you got going on down here?

Living the dream.

You are living the dream.

Catching some prize fish today as far as species go, that's for sure.

Oh, here we go.

Look at that.

Oh, that's a good smalley.

Here we go.

Oh, that there is a good fish.

That's a beautiful, beautiful smallmouth bass right there.

I think we've caught more small amounts than anything else.

And, hey, this is a really, really good one.

Oh, you got one?

I got a fish, yeah.

Okay.

Think it█s a striper?

I think so.

There you go.

Need a net?

There you go.

Thank you, sir.

Hey, this is getting.

This is getting good.

No, we're not on Lake Cumberland, we are out here on the Tennessee River catching stripers and small mouth off a rock pile on swim baits.

Oh, no.

I don't want any sugar.

You might█ve eaten something bad.

Oh, bite.

What do we got here?

Here's what they are.

Hey, I'll tell you what, If there's a bunch of them in there, we'll have a good time, too.

You ain't kidding.

Look at that.

That's a big old bait that is completely gone.

This is a white bass, kind of a small one.

But you think we'll catch a bigger one or you think we ought to keep that?

What do you think?

You clean them that size normally?

I do.

Well, let's go.

That's good, I'm good with that.

Uh Oh, got him.

I think they're just all over this point.

If these were probably a pound and a half apiece, we'd to have a mess of fish, you know?

Oh, you ain█t kidding.

The bigger fish could be out just a touch further.

Here we go.

A little better fish.

Hey, now we're white bass fishing.

This is what█s its supposed to be like right here.

A little better fish, we█ll take that.

Rods bending a little more on that one.

That's a good one.

Big enough.

Ellie, you want to get a bite of that?

Little better fish, isn█t it?

Yep.

There we go.

That's what we're after right there.

Look at that.

That's a pretty white bass right there.

Tell you what, it doesn█t get any better than that.

They fight way bigger than their size, and they taste way better than you think.

And when you catch a couple, usually you get on bunches.

We've had a great day of fishing so far, and we were about ready to call it quits, and we're like, “you know?

we've got live bait in here.

Let█s make a couple of drifts to see if we can't pick up another big fish.” That felt like a bite.

Got it?

Yeah.

Sweet.

Hold on.

Look at this, we have doubled up.

Think we█re tangled together.

Uh oh, I have a feeling that you hooked that fish and I ended up getting wrapped up in here.

That's a good assist.

You were like, How come my fish just got lighter?

I'll tell you what, though.

That's a beautiful fish, isn't it?

It is.

Wow.

There you go.

Hey, what a nice fish.

We're right here under the highway, below the bridge.

Very first drift.

Wham!

Nice striper.

We'll take that every time.

Well, Jim, I know you told me that fishing had gotten kind of slow, but there was nothing slow about this.

It was a pretty good day.

It was a good- Hey, we caught lot of different species of fish.

We had a lot of fun.

Caught some of my favorite fish, some small mouth, and got a cooler full to go clean.

I appreciate you having us down.

It's always a great time to get down here.

Let's go clean some fish.

All righty.

Hey, nothing beats a good fish sandwich after a day on the lake like this.

Well, Jim, spring's almost here.

You know what that means.

It's time to start catching white bass.

I'll tell you what I have people tell me all the time they█ve either tried these in the past or they've heard that they're not very good to eat.

And if you know how to filet them.

These are excellent, aren't they?

They're one of my favorites.

Yeah, they're really good fish.

Now, there is a- you know, you fillet these kind of how you filet a normal fish, but there's an extra step in there of removing some of that red meat that really is important to get that mild flavor that you get from white bass.

You mind giving me a demonstration today and show exactly how you do that?

Don't mind at all.

All right.

We'll let you get started.

You're going to show with an electric fillet knife and then we may show one with a regular fillet knife, if you don't mind.

Don't mind at all.

See if I can get this right.

Just like filleting any crappie, bluegill.

I'll do everything the same.

Catfish.

That was literally just exactly how you█d fillet any other fish right there.

I do try to hold my blade off of the skin just a little bit to leave the red meat that's on, you know, between the good flesh and the skin.

It's making me hungry already.

These are carrying eggs.

Usually when I fillet, I will hold my knife pretty still, and I pull my fish.

And it seem like I think it stretches the skin some and helps you keep the blade off of the skin.

Go ahead and take the rib cage off.

That part right there.

It's a little bit of fat.

I█ll trim that off.

That█s kind of fishy.

Now I like to use a regular knife instead of electric knife to do this part, but we'll do it with electric.

That red V, it's in a V, It don't go very deep.

Cut it at an angle, that'll save you some meat.

Just trim that off.

That a little bit.

There's not much on there so you don't waste any, any fish actually.

This part you can take the pains to get that off but it's so thin I don't think you.

Yeah.

I don█t recognize that.

If you want to take a fillet knife and do that.

You can pull it in and pull it through.

It just is a whole lot of work for what you really don't, don't get much out of that.

So there you go.

There's a white bass.

There's two great fillets.

This is about what you get off of a crappy something like that.

If you get a good sized white bass, look how white that meat is.

Absolutely beautiful.

And I'll tell you what, if you've ever had white bass filleted the right way, you won't throw any more of them back, will you?

No, not at all.

They're absolutely fantastic to eat.

Fun to catch and even better to eat.

Yeah.

I think.

Yeah.

Alright, you want to do a?

Let█s do a regular knife.

Actually I like a serrated blade.

Works real well, like a bread knife.

Yeah.

This is where the serrations come in handy, is cutting through those rib bones.

It█s been a while since I've done one with a knife, try to take your time and just work that through there, you still get the same result.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, it's the same exact result.

Fillet knife versus electric.

Now, show us again from your next step there.

The reason I cut straight down on top of the ribs there, cause there's a row of small, real small bones that come right off the top of the rib cage out to this meat there.

I just get rid of those.

Same thing, Go in at an angle.

Interesting enough, we said that this is a really good way to fillet white bass but, in all honesty, Striper and Hybrids are exactly the same thing.

You do the exact same process, they█re all kind of the same fish family.

Exactly.

And if you if you get this piece right here out, you can tell that “V” red meat out of there, if you get that out, what you're left with is some of the most delicious fleshed fish that you'll find here in the state of Kentucky.

So I appreciate the demonstration.

So if you've had a bad experience, give it another try and fillet them like that.

You will not be disappointed.

We just got a decoy set out.

We're in a location where any turkey that comes to this field should be able to see this decoy.

We have not heard a gobble yet this morning, but we know there are turkeys here.

This is about the time of day.

They normally start separating out again.

And that gives you the best chance to call them on in.

We got a turkey straight across the field, probably 150 yards.

Here comes another one.

We got two turkeys.

These look like jakes.

They█re coming in straight out in the field right here.

We've got another one.

Third Turkey just came into the field.

I think I got 3 jakes.

I got one on the left and we've got two on the right.

And they're making their way across this field.

I know they're going to come over here.

Here comes another turkey.

Looks to me like we've got three jakes and a hen.

Here they come right here.

Coming right at us.

I've got two jakes in range right now lets let this play out and see what happens.

They're curious.

Here they come .

They█re coming right to us.

I mean, right to us.

We've got a turkey right in front of us and a turkey about ten yards behind us, staring us down or actually being between the turkeys and the decoy.

Man, we were locked down.

They had two jakes decided to pass.

But that's also that's why you come out there.

Close encounters are super, super exciting.

There█s a coyote, all the way in the far corner, coming out in the field right there.

Watching Wildlife is always fun.

But you know what.

When you Turkey hunt and a coyote shows up.

That's not necessarily a good thing.

That coyote just caught something or a mouse or something.

And he's eating it right now, not paying much attention to our decoys.

I think it's because he's got a full belly.

So we█re down here this morning.

We saw some jakes and never heard of gobble.

We had a game plan set for this afternoon and it was a walking in here.

And before entering the field, I'll make sure I scan as good as I can up there in the corner through a tree, I see a black dot and we start looking at and it goes into full strut.

We got our decoy set up, backed off we█re going to try to call this turkey, and it's probably about 250 yards right now.

Here we go.

We finally got this gobbler to sound off.

First gobble we█ve heard yet.

Hopefully we can get it to come to us.

Problem is, a hen has popped out on the other side of the field, so we got a little competition from the real thing.

We kind of hope our decoy in our column sounds a little better than that hen right there.

There he goes again He's gobbling like crazy, but I don't think he's interested in that hen He█s paying more attention to us that Turkey is coming our way, but he just went in the woods.

Here he is, Here he is right here.

He's coming to the right.

He's up there.

He's about 100 out right now.

He█s coming down the hill.

He's going to come to us.

Kill him right there.

Wow this was this was the craziest hunt It took more patients than maybe any turkey hunt I've been on.

Let's go see what we got.

There he is.

Oh my gosh.

I tell you what.

Beautiful bird got a big, thick beard on it.

Some pretty impressive hooked on it to such an awesome height.

Really, really excited to be able to get this bird because this was a solid 3 hours of watching this bird work.

And low and behold it wasn't coming through this field.

This bird decided it was going to come in and sneak in and get a better look at that.

Jake Decoy through the woods.

And that's exactly what he did.

Now let's check in and see who else has been out having fun.

And this week's Ones That Didn't get away here we have a Elise Woods with a nice gobbler that was taken on the opening day of the new season in Mason County.

Congratulations.

The Shearer family has an annual tradition of catching crappie on Lake Linville.

Check out this nice crappie that was caught while bank fishing.

Check out this beautiful small mouth that was caught in a small stream by David Williams.

He said somehow a big fish in a little creek is more special than a big fish in a big river.

And I couldn't agree more.

Nicholas Morgan was out catching crappie while fishing with his grandpa at Titusville Lake.

Nice job.

Check out Joe Bullimore with a nice catch of crappie from Barron River Lake.

Congratulations.

Here we have Stevie Ligon with their first turkey that was taken on our very first hunt ever.

She contributed to beginner's luck.

She said she hunted a total of 15 minutes.

Nice job.

Check out this beautiful buck that was taken a few days before the rifle season by Woody Williams.

This buck was taken with a crossbow.

Congratulations.

Check out this beautiful largemouth bass that was caught by Nathan Head.

This was his personal best fish at over seven pounds and he caught it from a kayak.

Nice job.

If you've seen something in the past on Kentucky field that you like to reference again.

Maybe the best place is YouTube.

You can find us by searching K-Y a field.

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 on.

Hope to see you in the woods or on the water.

Hello, I'm Chad Miles.

Did you know that when you buy a fishing license, it does more than provide summertime fun?

That's nice.

It produces millions of fish that are stocked in our waterways.

It constructs new opportunities for boat ramps and public access.

It provides new, sustainable habitats for our native fish.

It creates quality fishing opportunities close to home.

It helps protect our home waters.

And it makes for a better, more beautiful bluegrass for all that live here.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, it's more than just a fishing license.