This week on Kentucky Afield we're beating the heat the best way we can think of by float fishing the Cumberland River.

Next, we're targeting offshore crappie on Green River Lake.

Then, we'll be bow hunting the suburbs of Louisville.

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, In the heat of the summer my favorite place to go fish is the Cumberland River, where the views are always stunning and the fish seem to always be biting.

As much as I love to fish, and I love to fish in the summertime, there's not a place I'd rather be than on one of these boats floating down this cold water catching fish in summer.

That's right.

You know, it is nice and cold.

Got fog going right now.

It's just a beautiful morning and it's a great place to be in summer.

Water's cold.

These fish, they're actively biting.

Summertime is a great time to catch them isn█t it?

Yeah it is, you can see them.

They're actually rising behind us and yeah, it's the greatest time to be out here.

What do we expect to catch today?

Well, we have everything in here from Rainbows, Browns, Brooks could catch any of all those.

Okay, I'll tell you what.

Fish are rising.

I'm ready.

We're too close not to be fishing.

Today we get to showcase one of my weaker aspects of fishing and that's with a fly rod.

Well we're going to work on that.

So I know there's going to be things how you can help me.

Please be vocal and say, Hey, do this, do that and make me a better fly fisherman by the end of the day.

We're going to try our best.

All right, let's go.

Oh, there you go.

It does not get any better than this, honestly.

Little guys fight like crazy.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

There you go.

He inhaled it, huh?

It's gone.

Little guy.

There you go.

Yeah.

Strip on him a little harder.

Strip, strip, strip and get a better bend.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

Oh, jumper.

I tell you what, if that doesn't put a smile on your face, then- it makes me giggle every time they jump.

Even the smaller ones, especially, it makes me giggle.

Line under your finger, rod bent, arm up in the air, watching a fish like that jump.

If you don't enjoy that every single time, you need to quit fishing.

Oh, Oh, there you go.

You█re not kidding.

That was one of those mend bites you were talking about.

You got an eye for it.

Literally.

I was picking it up to recast and you're like, Whoa, whoa.

He took that other fly I just put on.

There we go.

Those little bitty flies.

He took that one.

You changed up these flies a little bit.

I did.

I put a double dropper on.

What are they eating?

What are what are you mimicking here?

Really the flies we have on, they're just kind of tractor pattern.

But what they're eating is you can sometimes see a little bugs on the top here.

But what you do is you take this little siphon thing and stick it in.

I think we just blew it.

No, there's a few things in here.

Oh my gosh.

And you can see how tiny these little midges are.

Little midge larva.

I mean, they're- smallest little worms you ever did see.

That's how small some of this stuff is.

So what we're fishing is gigantic, comparatively speaking.

They think they hit the jackpot.

Not only did they not hit the jackpot, they literally had the few taken out of their stomach.

Yeah.

Oh, there you go.

He was right up next to the bank wasn█t he?

He hit the bottom one didn█t he?

Yeah.

Wow.

Look at the color on this thing.

Now, these browns actually can get really big can█t they?

They can get really big.

What is for Kentucky?

What is the state record brown?

21 pounds.

I'll say, I think it's over 20 pounds.

That one ain't going to make quite 21 pounds.

He may one day.

He might.

He might.

But I'll tell you what.

Got to let him grow up.

They fight really well, too.

It's a strong fish, isn't it?

Oh, you see that?

Oh get him!

You got him!

We got him on top!

Oh, that is awesome.

Oh, he█s pulling.

If he needs to go, let him roll.

I think you've got him on the bottom, though.

Oh, you think so?

Yeah.

Well, I think I see your foam and he doesn█t have it in his mouth.

Oh, no.

I thought he hit it on it.

Well, I thought he did too.

But a lot of times when those flies just hit, they're just not too far under the surface.

Let him ride, let him roll If he needs to go.

That was awesome to see him come up and hit that.

You got a Texas heart shot on him.

Uh oh, is that what█s up?

Yeah.

Got him.

There you go.

Wow, what a pretty fish.

Oh, they're beautiful.

Now tell me what we're looking at here, it looks like a brown.

You can kind of see the bigger markings in him.

Yeah.

It doesn't have much, but you know how the brookies have the little worm looks?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, that's kind of what it is, but it's faded off to the side, so he has, you know, it is a tiger trout.

Wow.

The tiger trout is a you know, that's a that's a brook and a brown trout hybrid.

Yeah.

So manmade.

That's a pretty cool fish.

It's hard fighting fish, now It fought a lot harder because I had it hooked in the belly.

Yeah, but it still was a pretty hard fighting fish.

Oh, yeah.

These things are a really aggressive.

Fight like a tiger.

Oh, there he is.

Oh, my goodness.

Did you see that thing come out of the water?

All right.

Here you go.

See the more orange in him here?

This is going to be more of your cut-bow, but it has a lot more cutthroat in it.

Oh, well, there you go.

Here we go.

I'll tell you what, this has been an absolute blast.

One of the things that I get asked the most is where is my favorite place to fish in the state of Kentucky?

Yeah.

And this one is always top two or three.

Yeah.

The bad thing is, is this is a place that too many Kentuckians that like to fish don't realize this opportunity exists.

They really don't.

They don't.

I mean, half the people don't even know that the lake was built by our river.

I have not thrown a fly rod since the last time I was out here with you.

You've been very patient with me, and I have caught as many fish as I could expect to catch in a couple hours drift down the river.

A lot of fun.

Good.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Last year at the Kentucky State Fair, I met a young gentleman who had two unique talents.

He's a great fisherman and he also is a great painter.

I█m out here this morning on Green River Lake with a young man, Jonah Hurst.

And Jonah, you and I actually met two or three years ago right?

Yep.

At the Kentucky State Fair.

Yep.

And you came up to me you go hey man, I love Kentucky Afield and started showing me pictures, and I was like, man, you and I need to fish sometime.

And I've been following you because you have a little YouTube fishing show that you do as well.

And man, you've been really catching some good fish lately, haven't you?

Yeah man, I█ve been coming out here crappie fishing, on my kayak and just been hammering them every morning.

Yeah.

So we're going to give that a try today.

Nothing like catching the summertime crappie.

Nothing like it.

Interestingly enough, I heard about you through my sister, who's a teacher at the school that you went to, and she told me, she said, there's this young kid in school that all I want to do is talk about fishing.

He loves it.

He watches Kentucky Afield.

And she also mentioned to me that you're a wildlife artist.

What do you like to paint?

I love painting just about anything that involves outdoors.

I love painting fish.

Man I'll tell you what.

I have seen some of your fish paintings.

You brought a couple of pictures in to the state fair when we had the Kentucky Afield day, and you showed me some of those pictures.

And Jonah, you're really talented.

You're a really talented painter.

I hope we can get out here today and catch and get some good photos for some inspiration, for some some new pictures.

Have you ever painted a crappie?

Oh, yeah.

All right, Well, there you go.

So you already been down that road.

You know how to paint a crappie.

Well, I'll tell you what.

Let's go find us a brush pile.

Hopefully we start hammering them.

Let's go give it a try.

Let's catch them.

So we're going to start out using our side scan, try to find a brush pile or two.

I got some buey markers here, too.

When you throw this thing out, that weight is going to pull the thing and it's just going to flop, flop, flop, flop, flop until it hits the bottom.

And it'll sit there.

What this does, is allows me to drop it right in the brush pile and then I will take the trolling motor out and we'll get 20 feet away from it or so and cast to it.

That way my trolling motor prop is not blowing those fish off of that brush pile.

We did pick up some minnows today.

We're going to small jigs, sixteenth or eighth ounce jigs, depending on how much wind we end up getting.

Now with this jig head which is cool.

It█s a crappie magnet.

It█s hollow in the middle, so you can put a little crappie nibblet and a minnow on your bait.

Just like that.

Put a good looking jig and a minnow right in the face of a crappie.

Even if he doesn't want to eat it, you put it there enough times he█s going to take a bite isn█t he.

It's all about getting it right on their face.

Oh.

Oh, yeah.

Big one.

Catfish.

Oh, it is a catfish.

Yeah.

I wish it was a crappie.

I wish so too.

There you go guys.

First fish.

I thought I had a big ole crappie at first.

Ole channel cat.

That's a perfect eating size fish.

It is perfect eating size.

I might keep him.

Yeah, go ahead.

Throw him in there.

There you go.

Well now, right species, wrong size.

Here we go.

That's a good one.

Look at that crappie.

This is a good crappie here.

There we go.

All right, There we go Jonah.

That's what we're looking for right there.

Beautiful white crappie from Green River Lake.

That's a perfect size one right there.

Thats kind of what you want to eat right there.

Let's put it on board.

We'll see.

And we're going to keep this one.

That's a 12 inch fish.

Yep.

There we go.

We'll take it.

Oh, yeah.

Oh.

Might be a little short.

We're starting to catch them, though.

But it's definitely short.

Nine would be right here.

It's about eight and three quarter.

This crappie is about a year away.

Here's one.

Oh yeah.

There you go.

It's a good crappie there.

It█s a good crappie.

Look how thick that thing is across the back.

Thats a good eater right there y█all.

A good one.

Oh, yeah.

Now we've got a black crappie.

We'll put it on the board just in case.

Now here at Green River Lake, the size limit is what, Jonah?

Nine inches.

And you're allowed to keep?

Twenty per person.

That one there is close, but it's going to have to go back.

Another crappie for next year.

It█s not how long the crappie is as far as what type of fillet you're going to get.

It's the thickness of it.

If I had to chose between a black crappie and white crappie I█d pick a black any day.

Usually they're a little thicker, way more per inch.

You get those big ones, man, they█re like a football.

A lot of times crappie tend to group by size.

Yep.

A spot where you catch a small one.

Probably going to be more small ones.

We could go try to find some more fish.

Probably not a bad idea.

Sounds good to me.

Oh, we got one here.

We got one.

That looks like a good one.

Oh, that is a good one.

There you go.

That's a decent one, guys.

I mean, he█s got some nice fillets on him.

There he is.

Good crappie.

That█s a good one.

There we go.

That's the reason we came right there.

Yes it is.

I'll tell you what when crappie fishing, Some will tell you that color really, really matters.

Some will tell you that it's not about color at all.

They can't tell what the color is once you get past about ten feet deep anyway.

I think it's more about speed of presentation and profile.

Today, for whatever reason, these fish have tended to want to bite on a straight minnow with no plastic.

You got one too?

We're on to something here.

Yeah nine incher.

That's a that's a keeper.

We finally figured something out.

You know what?

We're going to leave here with a mess of fish.

I think so.

Let's get these in the livewell.

Let's do it.

You realize how many brush piles we█ve fished today?

You know, the crazy thing is, is that you come out on a spot like this and you find a brush pile that doesn't seem to be holding any fish.

You█re better off if you got electronics to go ahead and mark it because you never know when the fish might move a little deeper or a little more shallow.

And one of these days you might be glad you got that mark.

There is one.

Oh, good crappie.

Keeper y█all.

There you go.

That one's going to keep isn█t it?

Oh, yeah.

Ten inches equals two fillets in the skillet.

Oh, here he is.

That is a good one.

That is a good one there.

He sure ate that minnow.

It's gone, long gone.

I'll tell you what.

That fish being ten and a half, 11 inch crappie got a little bit of meat on its back, going in the livewell.

Look at that bluegill.

Not a bad bluegill.

No, it's not.

I bet your Christmas wish list every year is consumed with mainly tackle, huh?

I'll tell you what, I was not a fisherman.

I'd be rich.

Here we go.

Nice one Chad.

That█s a nine and half there.

Yep.

Nine and half inches.

That█ll work.

Here we go.

Nice job man.

That one█s going to go ten and a half to 11.

Yep.

Not bad guys.

Going to be close, but I think it's going to make it.

That█s a keeper right there.

Well.

This one█s a little short.

He█s going back.

Here we go.

That fish is probably going to keep isn█t it?

Right at that nine and half inch mark.

Yep a nine inch fish.

He█s good.

Nine and three quarter.

There he is.

I█ll tell you what Jonah, this been an interesting day.

We ended up in the heat of the day getting on a brush pile that's just loaded with fish.

So, that's a better fish.

It█s been a great time man.

I know you're super passionate about the outdoors.

I love your passion.

I love watching and keeping up with what you do out of a kayak.

And it's super impressive.

Keep making those fish paintings.

Man it's really impressive stuff.

I hope you've had fun today.

Oh, it's been a blast.

Since our fishing trip to Green River Lake, Jonah was inspired to paint a new painting, and he entered it this year in the Kentucky State Fair, where it won the blue ribbon.

Congratulations, Jonah.

Now that the Kentucky deer archery season's in, don't forget that some of the best areas of deer hunt are sometimes small tracts of property in and around urban areas.

Of all my favorite places to hunt my favorite places are on very, very small pieces of property in urban areas.

Got a couple of deer with a bow so far this year, but I would love to help this guy out.

He is having trouble raising a garden and that's how many deer tend to come through here.

So I hope I slip in there and maybe get one or two deer out of here for him today.

These are always interesting hunts.

They're very loud.

We'll hear trains, busses, lawnmowers, dogs barking.

It's all part of an urban hunt.

You got to just get in, block that out and understand it happens every day.

And these deer somewhat used to it.

So we'll get in here and see how it goes.

All right.

I█m up here.

I█m settled in.

Typically out deer come from up here and walk right in to this gentleman█s backyard, eat out of his garden.

The wind is blowing this direction.

So they had to get by me before they can smell me.

There█s about 10 or 12 houses right there.

We're here for a doe, but if a nice buck shows up I do start my buck tag.

I feel good about this.

We got about an hour left of daylight.

So far nothing has came through but it█s been a really, really distracted afternoon.

We've had dogs barking.

We've had people mowing grass over here.

We've had homeowners out walking around.

That's part of it.

These deer are somewhat used to that.

If you're hunting an urban area like this, it can happen any point in time.

So you just disregard all that and stay in there.

Stay quiet.

Make sure your wind█s in your favor.

You never know when it may happen.

I got a deer right here across the creek.

Looks like a doe.

She█s going to cross right in front of us.

Wow.

That happened so fast.

That deer knew exactly where it was going.

I'm pretty sure it was this guy's garden.

Exactly why he wants me in here hunting.

Maybe he█ll have some green beans.

Corn for himself this year.

Well, here we go.

It looks like she's come out here in this field.

Here she is right here.

Oh, wow.

What a nice looking doe.

I'm so excited to have this deer.

We had everything happened to us tonight.

We had people cutting the grass.

We had people walking.

We had the landowner come out to his dogs and she paid no attention whatsoever.

It's quite obvious this is one of the deer that had been coming through here and walking right past the dog pen, right into the garden.

Hopefully he'll get a little more food for his table.

I'm going get a little bit from my table.

It's a win win.

Don't pass those opportunities on these small tracts of property in the urban areas that have a lot of deer.

This deer probably ran 60 yards, maybe 70 yards.

So I had no concern with retrieving the deer.

I'm still on the property that I had permission to hunt.

Everything's good.

Time to get this deer out of here.

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 six year old John with his first squirrels and he took these in Mason County, Kentucky.

Congratulations.

Here we have six year old Brimley Fields who caught this nice bluegill at Kinkaid Lake State Park.

Congratulations.

Check out this beautiful picture here of Caleb Chandler holding his very first muskie that was caught on cave run.

Nice job.

Check out Carter Bay with this nice 14 inch bass that he caught a cave run lake while fishing with his poppy.

Nice job.

Jarrett Bowling knows how to have a good time and that is going out and getting some frogs in a farm pond in Hardin County.

Congratulations.

Nine year old Connor Bell caught this first fish all by himself, a nice sunfish while fishing with his dad.

Here we have Savannah, and it was her first time out in the woods and she went squirrel hunting with her dad.

Nice job.

The 2023 fall hunting guides are now available.

You can find it at your local retailer or go to FW.KY.GOV and that reminds me, our fall hunting question and answer show is right around the corner.

Please join us on September the 18th.

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.