This week on Kentucky Afield.

Biologists are in the field monitoring game species year around, and one species that they're working on right now is the Wild Turkey.

Next, there are a lot of pretty interesting fishing lures out there, but one that's gained popularity in recent years is the Alabama rig.

Then, as a part of celebrating our 70th year on air, we're taking a look back through time and goose hunting in the 1980s.

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.

Ask any waterfowl hunter if they've ever taken a banded bird and they'll probably be able to tell you when and how many they've taken.

Now, turkey hunters are going to get that same opportunity.

Zach, we're actually doing something pretty unique.

We're going to use several rockets and a net to catch turkeys.

Yup.

What in the world would we want to do that for?

Right.

For research.

Yeah.

This is research designed specifically to make sure our hunting regulations are where they should be for sustainability of turkey population for hunters.

Hopefully 10-15 gobblers will come in here on the bait site.

May take hours.

This is a waiting game, right?

Right.

But once you shoot the net and you catch these turkeys, you█re going to run out.

And then what are we going to do to allow us to gather data?

We█re going to put leg bands.

The leg bands are on the birds.

The birds are subject to harvest here in a couple of months.

Okay.

Hunter shoots the bird.

He reports it to us.

This is just one sample of birds here, but we're doing this all across the state.

You█re hoping to band 300 right?

Yeah, that's our goal.

But you█re specifically trying to get male birds, right?

In this case males, yeah, because we're trying to estimate spring harvest rate.

That's what we're after.

So bearded hens, yeah, we would band those too.

Okay, We've caught a few at this site already, so if we could get another handful, that'd be great.

We've got many other sites spread out.

That's part of the study is to be representative of the whole state.

So from western Kentucky to eastern Kentucky and us in between here, we've got multiple sites in each region so we can spread things out a little bit.

This is going to be really cool to watch.

Yeah, it's a rodeo, I'm sure.

All right.

Well, I guess it's about time for us to get back into our locations and get ready to go.

All right.

Good deal.

Well, we've got all of our rockets setup.

We've got our bait site set.

We've tested everything.

We should be good to go.

Now it's just a waiting game.

We've got big expectations of getting a good group of gobblers caught in the net.

Hopefully it doesn't take too long.

But when it happens and that boom takes place and that net goes out, it's going to be a mad dash from everybody around to get out there and to try to hold these turkeys down, get them secured, get them banded, and get them released back in the wild.

Yeah, here we go.

Our first turkey.

I can't tell if it's a gobbler or not.

It█s got a beard.

Well, that turkey that came in has now made its way off all the way at the far end of the field.

It didn't come to the bait, but that's okay.

We need more birds to come to trigger the rockets anyway.

So hopefully we get another flock of more birds that come in and make their way right there to the bait pile.

It█s still early.

Barely after nine.

Well, our turkeys didn't get the message.

They haven't showed up yet.

We've been here for several hours.

It's actually warmed up.

Went from about ten degrees to, it█s in the thirtys now.

It feels pretty good.

Some cattle are moving around, birds are flying, just not turkeys.

Alright, we█ve got turkeys on both sides.

Oh my goodness.

Man we█ve still got six or seven turkeys on the back side.

Here they come.

Are they going to come in or no?

And these are all male turkeys but some of them have got really short beards.

Not now?

No.

We█re going to get, we█re going to have a chance at catching 12 to 14 all in one shot.

This is going to be insane.

Come on turkeys It█s go time.

Okay.

let█s go.

Oh, my goodness.

All at the last minute.

We sat there for 8 hours.

10 hours.

All right, blindfolds on all the heads we can.

I think we've got 11 male turkeys on the ground right now getting these little socks on their heads, trying to settle them as best we can.

And it's time to start the work up process.

It just calm them down, keeps us from freaking out so bad.

We know that they're male birds unless they're bearded hens, so.

They're all male bird.

I thought.

I thought I saw a jake or two.

There's a couple of jakes in there.

2161..

He's got 2160.

Oh, he█s got 2160?

Yup.

All right.

So you got the number, everything recorded?

2161 jake, right?

Yeah, everything's good on that one.

We're actually doing this study in conjunction with Tennessee, Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency and Tennessee Tech University.

And what we're trying to do is estimate harvest rates of male turkeys.

Okay.

Band number 10-55.

10-55.

We know from telecheck how many legally hunters harvest.

What does that mean?

You know, so this is kind of a percentage thing.

Plus, we'll be able to look at survival of the bird.

Got him.

So I'm taking his...

Hold on to him a little longer next time.

The only way you can do that effectively is you have to disperse the number of birds you're taking across the state because certain areas have higher hunting pressure and higher population of birds, different habitats, different landscapes.

You know, Kentucky's very diverse east west, so we're doing it across the state.

Both public and private lands?

Yep, for sure.

Okay.

Today we're on a private land property.

Yeah, but you also had some people today at Clay WMA, right?

That's right.

Yep.

Yep.

They caught five birds right before we did these, so.

Okay.

How many years is this project going to go on?

It█s a four year project.

This is the first one.

You can just sat him down... Don█t, don█t keep hanging on to him.

Well, you told me to hold on long while ago.

I noticed some of these are, you know, silver, and some of them are green.

Tell me about the green ones.

Yeah, every fourth one is green.

They are reward bands.

Oh, okay.

Purpose of the reward bands is to help us estimate harvest rate of the non-reward bands.

Gotcha.

They're doing this type of work for a long time in the waterfowl world.

There█s some type of financial or surprise award for whoever turns in one of these?

$75.

Yeah.

$75?

And we've got some really good cooperation there.

We have the Kentucky Fish Wildlife Foundation would be contacting the hunters and the funds for that are donated by the Kentucky chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation.

Okay.

So multiple partners helping out.

So, hey, if you're out and hunting and you come across a turkey that's got a band on it like this, make sure you report it.

Get all the information back to the agency.

But the turkey is theirs to keep.

The band is there to keep.

And hey.

Absolutely.

I've never killed a banded Turkey, have you?

No.

There's not been many been a bird since George.

Wright years and years ago when turkeys were still being restored.

And if you're lucky enough to get a green one, then there's actually a financial incentive as well.

That's right.

All right.

Hey, thank you so much.

I appreciate your time.

Yes, sir.

This is the time of year.

Late winter and early spring when anglers should hit the water in search of large bass.

Using an a-rig.

The A-rig, the Alabama rig, the umbrella rig got extremely popular five or six years ago.

And now if you're a tournament fisherman you obviously know what it is because you better have one on during most parts of the year.

That is that that is the thing about the Alabama rig is this time of year.

And you know, sometimes even in the fall, if you don't have one at least tied on, you are truly at a disadvantage.

And that's not necessarily even in the state of Kentucky.

That's that's really anywhere that you have a population of shad in the lake.

That's right.

And I'll tell you, it can be intimidating because there's a lot of pieces and parts and everything has to go together to make this work.

There is you know, you have not just one bait, you have an umbrella rig, you have heads, you have baits.

And so everything has to work together.

And even then, you can't just throw it on any rod or reel.

So there's a lot of different things going on that make a successful Alabama rig setup or one that's not.

That's probably the most important part of it right here.

If you really want to use 60 to 80lb braid.

Yeah 50, 50 to 80 anywhere in there.

You're going to get this hung.

It's got five hooks on it.

I don't know about you but me, that's a good bit of money tied up on this.

I want that braid so I can make sure I can get this back.

Really.

This is the first component.

As you can see, it's got a way to attach it.

It's got some wires.

It's got a little spinner blades that swim on there.

This one has five.

Now.

After that, you've got hooks.

Obviously, with your hooks you can have all the different sizes of hooks as well as weights as well.

As far as weights go, just from my personal experience, you know, around here, whether you're fishing from 10 to 20 foot of water.

This, I think you've got eighth-ounce that seems to be about the best is one eighth as far as fishing it in varying water depths.

And of course you have your swim bait.

These are the 3.8 and they█re ribbed.

Now you're throwing one that's actually got the slick, no ribs, a smaller profile.

So it's all preference.

I will say that it often is best to have different colors on that, to give a fish something to isolate on that Alabama rig.

And more often not.

I would also put the different colors on the bottom or even the middle as and that's where they usually will tend to bite anyways.

But so yeah very the colors.

Absolutely.

And so there's no way that you don't have to put these on there any particular way up or down or nothing.

It's just, you know, that is the one thing I will say is that if you do or if you are going to vary the colors, you'll see that the Alabama rig is going to run like this in the water column.

So we have some varying colors on the bottom.

And there you go.

That's it.

That's it.

So this thing here is probably one more bass tournaments in the last five years than any other lure.

There's no doubt about it.

It's probably got more second and third places to.

Now, if you're just a weekend fisherman, you want to catch more fish.

This is also a great technique.

Just give it out there.

It doesn't matter who you are, it's a great technique and that's one other thing.

There's no really wrong way to fish it.

For the most part, it's a chunk and wind.

Just a nice slow steady retrieve is going to be the ticket.

We'll talk a little bit more about how to cast it once we get out on the water.

But I think that's that's our next step.

Let's let's get this boat in the water and go out there and see if we can't catch anything.

Oh, there█s one!

Smallmouth.

It is a smallmouth.

Nice fish.

And let's see what color he hit.

Which one did he hit?

Oh, he hit the uh.. Well, he's got two.

We'll call it the Jackal.

Yeah.

Nice, nice pretty smallmouth.

Very pretty fish.

So, Drew, what time of year do you like and what type of water conditions do you like to fish the Alabama rig the most?

Ideally it█s going to be February through April, depending on what kind of year we're having.

This year it's been kind of unseasonably warm.

So we've kind of springboarded things forward.

There's two things water temperature somewhere between 48 and 55 probably is prime for the Alabama rig.

And then another thing is, you know, we're down here on Laurel, the first thing when got down here, we're kind of hunting some more stained water.

So you don't want crystal clear water, but at the same time you don't want mud.

And this right here is kind of nice in between.

That's prime ingredients to to have a really good, good day of fishing with the Alabama rig.

Which one did that one hit, the same one?

Same one as the last one.

I may have to put ten of that same exact bait on mine.

We showcased, you know, the line and putting the rig together.

Tell me a little bit about the equipment that is best for doing this technique.

So one part is the reel.

I want a reel that I'm not going to trash it by throwing an Alabama rig, so I'm going to buy a real that can stand up to that.

He's foul hook.

And the second thing is having the right rod.

You know, whenever we were loading this up, you need a rod that one has a lot of power.

You can throw 2 to 5 ounces, but the same time has has a tip to where I can get some accuracy with it.

I can lay it softly in the water.

Well, we got about another hour before dark.

The big fish ought to come up here to feed in a minute.

Let's try to put a big one in the boat.

What do you think?

I'm game with that.

There's one.

Good one too.

Oh, that's a largemouth.

Big fish.

Bringing it this way.

Nice.

Look at the belly on that thing.

Oh, we've been out fishing around, running, running around and trying to find some stained water.

And we thought, you know what?

With this evening coming in, the sun being down, maybe we can get on a main like look at that belly on that fish.

It's been eaten a few shad.

Yeah.

It, it's, it's, it's been eating them five at a time it looks like.

That's, that's a really good fish.

So there you go.

You talk about a-rig fish, this big piece of wire coming through, a big smart fish won't hit it.

There you go.

There's a four pounder.

So if you're looking to catch more fish and you've never tried the Alabama rig, it's a good technique to put in your arsenal.

Put that in your tackle box, make sure you get the right gear to to throw it.

You might ultimately have some of the best days fishing your entire life when the conditions are right.

If you can hit that window when the water and the weather and everything is lined up for the Alabama rig, I mean, it will show you amazing things.

As we continue to celebrate our seventieth year on the air here at Kentucky Afield, this week we're going to travel to western Kentucky and look back over four decades ago at a Goose Hunt.

Leslie Gyp Gibson is cooking up a pre-dawn breakfast and he's not in his own kitchen.

He's in an elaborate floating goose blind.

But Gyp would just as soon be here as his own kitchen.

He's the former state champion goose caller.

Waiting patiently for breakfast on the left of your screen outdoors, writer Ben Hall.

The man sitting in the middle is three time world duck calling champion Mike Macklemore, also a talented goose caller.

And next to him is Jimmy Shirl, the owner of the property we're about to hunt on.

And the builder of this immaculate goose blind.

As the last biscuit was eaten, the sun rose up over this Union County lake our goose blind was floating on.

In the early morning light our decoys looked so much like the real thing they could have fooled anybody.

Hopefully an incoming flock of Canada geese.

Young Derek Rickard searched the dawn sky.

He's also a talented waterfowl caller, as is Hunter Macklemore.

His world champion father is bound to be a pretty good teacher.

A few minutes later the first flock of canadas were spotted.

Now an orchestra of champions would turn on the music.

It would turn out to be one of those days when everything went well, a day that would live in our memories for years to come.

A local television news crew joined us.

The popular feature reporter Hal Wolford of WEHT-TV in Evansville, trying to interview Gyp Gibson when they were profoundly interruptive.

Well, I tell you what, you fool those 25 or so.

I come over here a while ago, and these are easy.

These are a lot easier than people now, don█t get me wrong.

The geese are a lot easier to fool than people.

Are you telling me that it's easier to fool a goose is a judge.

Okay.

More geese.

More geese.

See any more?

How did you get started?

How long you been calling or what else do you call?

Well, mainly ducks and geese.

I do turkey and sell turkey calls too, but mainly, of coure this time of year it's just ducks and geese.

I started duck hunting when I was about seven years old and of course my dad.

I hunted with him on up through till I got, you know to be a teenager and primarily, I guess my dad and some of the friends that hunted with him are responsible for me being able to blow a duck call.

But I got pretty proficient with it at the time I was 15, 16 years old.

In high school.

And back then there weren't a lot of high school kids, you know, that duck hunted..

There were four or five or six of us and we used to wade the bottoms, the same bottoms that I hunt now in a blind down there in a flooded field.

We used to wade you know, as teenagers.

And it's one of those things, of course I was a lot younger then and had a lot more vim and vigor, and I█d chase the ducks, now I try to get two ducks come to me and hunt out of a blind.

A little more relaxed hunting.

When did you start competing?

It was after I got married.

We moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and I went to an outdoor show up there, Great Lakes and South outdoor show in Nashville and heard a gentleman by the name of John Fox, who's now got a national syndicated television show, a fishing show down in Texas.

And John was real good with a duck and goose call and he put on a calling demonstration.

And it just, I don't know, something about it fascinated me.

So I went down, introduced myself, and to find out what kind of call he was blowing.

And he was blowing a Chick Major's call made over in Stuttgart, Arkansas.

And at that time, that was the most popular call that they blew in world competition.

So I ordered one and to Make a long story short, I got one and start practicing.

The first year I entered our state contest, I finished fourth.

And of course, that to me was just like winning the thing.

I didn't have any expectations of really finishing in the top four, you know.

I do think that the good Lord gave me the ability as far as duck calling to pick it up pretty easy.

It█s something that became pretty easy for me.

I've worked hard at it and put a lot of time and effort and practice in it to, you know, to get it.

But just being able to call ducks, and blowing a duck call hunting wise has been real natural, you know, for me.

And this call is it's an Arkansas style call that I make.

It's a plastic call.

This one's got to clear acrylic barrel with a black plastic endpiece, and also make it in a black plastic barrel with a black endpiece.

As I said, it's an Arkansas style call.

It's a it's a single reed type call.

It has a clear mylar reed And it's what I use primarily.

when I'm hunting.

There is some people that blow them in competition.

I make a wooden call, handmade wood call that primarily was a call that I used in competition to win my world titles.

And it's a hunting call also, but it's handmade, made out of a foreign wood called Cocobolo.

The majority of them are made out of Cocobolo.

Tell us a little bit about what you got.

These calls.

This in particular is made out of laminated wood is a real hard diamond wood powder.

Paul Drury, my partner, he he makes the call.

He runs all of it out.

This is African Cocobolo, like Mike█s call.

In fact, we got the wood from Mr. Macklemore because it's more durable and we like the sound of it.

Okay?

These, these calls they█re custom calls.

And we don't put out many of them.

Like I say, one like this has won the world championship.

Mr. Keith McGowan He came from Delaware, he won the World Championship blowing these calls.

The next block was so high my camera couldn't focus on it.

They were on their way out of this country altogether.

That is, until the master callers lured them in.

Well, I suppose we got some of the best callers in in the world.

And I guess it we must be blinded pretty good and everything just going great.

Good place and good people.

By noon we had taken eight geese.

It was time for me to head back to the state capital.

As I headed to shore, our champion callers sent me a parting song.

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 Carl Vinson with his first fish ever caught on Cedar Creek Lake.

A nice bluegill.

Congratulations.

Check out this beautiful smallmouth caught on beautiful Dale Hollow Lake by Matt Hovecamp.

Nice fish.

Here we have 11 year old Luke Allen with a rabbit taken from Peabody WMA.

Nice job.

Check out this nice looking buck taken by Sabrina Laney.

This is her largest buck to date taken in Grant County.

Nice job.

12 year old Liam Hafley knows how to get out and have a good time and that is by going rabbit hunting in Marion County.

Nice job.

Here we have a familiar face.

This here is Dalton Smith with a nice musky caught in Green River Lake.

Nice job.

Here we have Price Hardin with a nice smallmouth that was caught on Elkhorn Creek while fishing in January.

Here we have Bella Kingrey with a nice bobcat that she trapped in Webster, Kentucky.

Nice job.

Here we have Yukon and Dalton with some nice ducks taken on their last hunt of the year.

Congratulations.

Whalen Smith is holding a couple of his crappie as he caught a limit on Nolan Lake.

Nice job.

As waterfowl and small game hunting season has come to a close here in Kentucky.

It's a reminder to me that it's time to renew my hunting and fishing license.

You can do that online at FW.KY.GOV or at your local retailer.

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.