This week on Kentucky Afield, we're taking a look back at the year that was, and are bringing you a few of our favorite segments from along the way.

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.

One of my favorite locations to fish in the state of Kentucky is the falls of the Ohio, because you never know what you're going to catch.

Well, I'm right here.

Just steps away from the parking lot of the falls.

The Ohio and Indiana.

This is a place I like to come several times throughout the year, usually in the morning or in the afternoon.

And June is a great time of year to come down here.

One of the reasons I love it is it's so close.

There's always fish here.

And when the water conditions are right, like they look like they are today, you never know what you're going to catch.

I'll tell you what, when I come down here to the river, you're going to lose some tackle.

I like to use a wire that is a little more of a light wire hook, and I usually throw it on, braid it a lot of times.

Allows me to straighten this hook out and get it back now.

You catch or you hook into a 30 or 40 pound fish.

You might regret that decision because you're going to use a lot of drag and hopefully you can get it in.

But otherwise it seems like I'm retired all the time.

Here we go.

We got a fish on.

It's good to get a little practice.

When I get a fish, I really want to get it because this is probably the route they're going to take over the dam and back up.

All right.

Perfect.

Just such a high concentration to Gar right here comes another one, probably.

I'll tell you one thing.

These are rod benders.

Whatever they are, that's a drum That fish actually tried to hit and missed it.

And made him feel a lot bigger because he's foul hooked in the back.

Old drum.

And they are fun to catch.

But after a little bit, they kind of just give up on you.

That was going, he was trying to go up to up the river, getting out of here.

Here we go.

Oh, what do we got here another drum.

Hey, a lot easier to bring in when we're actually hooked in the mouth.

I'll tell you what.

This thing about fishing down here, in these fossil beds, is that every time you come, it's a new experience.

Even though the bottom really in changing.

I've got to figure out where they're seams that are in this fossil beds and Seems are where the water runs all the time.

We've got more water there.

So you might be catching over a seam or just shy of a seam and you got to figure out where that deeper water is because there's a lot of times the fish would be sitting pretty close to that.

Thing is it doesn't give you a real wide area to fish.

So I make long casts a lot of times to fish.

Five or six feet stretch of water and the rest of it's almost too shallow.

So every time you come, it's about figuring out where those spots are at.

And that's a lot of times going to hold the fish.

Man, how I'd love for this to be a sport fish, but just don't have that much confidence.

Tell you what, well, when you come to the river, you got to be ready for anything.

You never know what you're going to catch.

Kind of hoping for hybrids today, but if you just want to get your line stretched, well, these will definitely do the trick.

Now, generally, as a fisherman, normally don't like to see those cormorants or such aggressive fish eaters.

But when you're trying to locate fish, one thing's for sure.

If those cormorants are diving, there's bait.

Here we go.

A cormorant may try to eat my fish right under it.

Another drum today.

It really is rough fish that are piled in here.

And there's not a whole lot of water.

It's kind of not very deep.

And these fish are in here and open and willing to bite.

Well, when that happens, I'm willing to come down here and stretch the line and try to have a day of catching.

Who knows what.

I'll tell you what.

The whole thing of hooking at fish that fight in that current.

Watching it go through the ripples over this Little Rock waterfall here and then it back up the other side.

Pretty fun.

Here we go.

Oh, my goodness.

Thank goodness he got off.

Oh, he didn't.

Not off, I thought he got off.

Oh, my goodness.

I think he got off and hit it again.

Gosh look how aerodynamic those fish are how they can just shoot straight up that rough water.

Actually hook some bigger than this one today.

But I think it's the first one we got all the way in.

Now I got to find a spot to secure my feeding so that I can grab this fish.

Now, you never want to reach down and grab one of those.

It looks like you got a handle hanging out there.

That handle is covered in teeth.

You do not want to reach down there and try to grab that fish.

You would regret it.

Let me get better.

Oh, perfect.

There we go.

Look at there.

It's exactly what we wanted right there.

Got my lure back, turned him loose.

Hey, I must be living right.

What do we got here.

It looks like another Gar and they█ve been getting off quite a bit.

It's another drum.

I█ll tell you what.

Getting a perfect combination of a rod that will cast a long, long way but has enough backbone to pull a fish like this through.

Takes the right rod selection.

A good one.

It█s a good what?

I don't know.

But it's something big.

Another drum, hard fighting fish.

Man.

As many fish as I'm catching today, this is a perfect way to spend the morning come out and catch a lot of fish.

Here we go.

All right, here we go.

Another drum.

Say what?

These things are crazy.

You got a chance to come down here and catch.

Just tons of fish.

I don't know how many pounds of fish I've caught today, but tons and tons of fish.

It's kind of crazy coming down and being able to do this right outside the city limits of Louisville.

The great location to come for just a morning or an evening walk in and catch fish like this pretty much all day long.

Nothing is more enjoyable than a day on the lake.

But if you're not careful, many things can go wrong.

And that's why our conservation officers spend their summers on our public waterways trying to ensure your safety.

Hey man.

Howdy.

I'm Officer Abrams with Fish Wildlife.

We're at Taylorsville Lake today in Spencer County.

I'm assigned to Oldham County.

Officer Casper here is assigned to Spencer County.

This lake is one of the busiest in the state, mainly because of the proximity to Louisville.

It just draws a lot of people from, you know, our biggest metro area.

We get a lot of people out here.

Our mission is to enforce the hunting, fishing and boating laws in the state.

This time of the year, it's mainly boating.

We're out here mainly to keep people safe, make sure people go home without being hurt at the end of the day.

While we're out here doing boat patrol, it doesn't mean that we ignore 150 charges, which is hunting and fishing.

Even on boat patrol, if we see someone fishing, whether it's on the dam or from a boat, we'll go ahead and check them.

And if we have any issues there, we will address them.

Howdy, y'all catching any?

Little bitty sunfish.

Little bitty sunfish.

All right, we're going up all right here beside you real quick.

Get you checked out, be out of your hair.

Okay?

We did a safety compliance check after checking their fishing license.

Make sure they had lifejackets for everybody on the boat.

Had a fire extinguisher, sound producing device.

Last thing.

How about an air horn or a whistle?

Some sort of noise making device?

I've got a horn.

Give me a little toot.

All right, guys.

Well be careful the rest of your day.

Have a good day and hopefully you catch some fish.

Okay.

Thank you, guys.

Have a safe one.

Hey, you too.

Happy fourth.

Thank you.

Look at that dog.

Dog?

Where█s the dog?

Right over there on the swim platform.

That's a good dog.

Got to love the dogs.

Got to love them.

We don't deserve them, lord knows.

Hello.

You got a fishing license handy on you?

No that█s a Florida license.

You have a.

You need to have a Kentucky fishing license.

You don't have a Kentucky fishing license?

No.

One bluegill.

A few more and you have a pretty good sandwich.

All righty.

Awesome.

Thank you, sir.

You have a good one.

Good luck.

You guys got a couple of fishing license on you?

Yes, sir.

Awesome.

Thank you, sir.

Yes, sir.

So far, we've checked a few fishing licenses.

We notice everyone on the boat so far as being safe and having fun.

We love to see that.

You know, we're all about fun, but we make sure that you're being safe about it, too.

That's a big thing is safety out here.

So like that girl sitting on the on that pontoon, you'll see that on plane going down the lake.

And that's kind of thing we're looking for.

I mean, in the end, we're out here to make sure everybody's safe.

I don't know if he's got a spotter on the boat.

Yeah.

How are you doing?

Good, sir.

I'm Officer Abrams with Fish and Wildlife.

Alright.

The reason we█re stopping you is because we don't see you█ve got a spotter on this boat for the tubers there.

Okay.

What█s that mean?

Someone to watch the people on the tube while you're towing them.

Do you have any sort of mirrors or anything like that?

No.

Okay.

So next time I have to do that then?

I have somebody that's driving while someone's watching them?

Yeah.

Correct.

If you don't have the mirrors.

Basically one of you guys would have to come in here and watch the other one on the tube.

So that way we can do it that way.

Alright.

We have to have a spotter to be safe.

So a basic boat inspection is us just making sure you have all the required safety equipment on your boat.

A life jacket for everyone on board.

A type fourth throwable if your boat is 16 feet or over.

All boats are also required to have a fire extinguisher on board, and the fire extinguisher has to be serviceable, meaning it cannot be expired.

Okay.

Yeah, that's good.

In addition, all boats have to have a noise making device, whether it's a horn an air horn or a whistle or a bell.

So yeah, one of them is going to have to come in and and, and be your spotter.

So when someone falls off, they see it.

In the future, if you get a rear-view mirror to mount right there, you wouldn't have to do that.

Okay.

All right.

So y█all be safe.

Thanks, guys.

Yep.

Happy Fourth of July.

You too.

Be careful.

Whenever you're towing someone, whether it's tubing, skiing, anything like that, you're going to have to have someone on board with the captain.

Keeping an eye on the tuber, to keep them safe.

Make sure they can alert the captain when he falls off.

Big safety thing again.

If you don't have someone there to watch you, you need to have mirrors like Officer Casper was explaining, so you can keep an eye on the tuber.

Well, there you go.

Let's go get them.

We are.

Yeah, she's holding a kid.

Kid's got a lifejacket on, but she's holding the kid while she's up on the bass seat.

We saw a person riding in a high rise bass seat on a bass boat above idle speed.

It's an illegal, unsafe position.

Good.

I'm Officer Abrams of Fish and Wildlife.

The reason we're pulling y'all over when the boat's underway.

Like it just was.

You can't have anyone sitting up on an elevated bass seat.

Okay?

So hang tight just a second.

I got you.

I don█t want you to get your fingers pinched or fall in or nothing.

Quite often we see people riding on the bow of the boat or the stern of the boat.

The bow of the boat is going to be the front of the boat.

Stern's going to be the back.

That's a violation and is extremely unsafe.

Hypothetically, if your boat's underway and you hit a wake, you have a rider riding in one of those unprotected positions and they fall overboard.

A lot can happen real quick.

So we definitely take that very seriously.

Make sure you do one of the two.

Okay?

All the information you need is on the back.

Okay.

All right.

Be careful.

You all have a safe holiday, okay.

Hope everything goes well today.

Yes, ma'am.

Get ready to go pull this boat over.

Yep.

Stop, Stop!

Stop.

Go ahead and throw it in neutral for me.

How are you today?

Good.

How are you doing?

Good thanks.

Good.

I'm Officer Abrams, Fish and Wildlife.

Look, the reason we're pulling y'all over is because y'all are taking off under way.

And you have a rider hanging outside the protective gunwale of the boat.

Okay.

Okay?

That's a big safety thing.

Okay.

I'm sure you can imagine.

You hit a wake or something like that.

He falls overboard.

You're underway.

Yeah.

It can get real bad real quick.

Okay, Hang tight one second.

Captain, you got somebody Id on you?

When it comes to a pontoon, especially on the front of the pontoon, outside of the protective railing, if you fall off of that, you're just going in between the pontoon straight back to the motor.

And we've seen the aftermath of those types of things.

And that's why we're very serious about them.

And we stop and we write citations for that.

A little two in one action there.

Same exact reason we pulled the first boat over.

It's a really big safety thing.

If, God forbid, something happens when someone's on the outside of that protected gunwale it can get real bad real quick.

So we take those very seriously.

We've flown them out of here to UofL for that.

When they go off the front of a pontoon and get sucked in between the pontoons and takes them straight back to the motor.

We don't have a lot of idle speed areas on this lake, but we have a few.

The main one being by the marina and we get a lot of complaints from the marina about people violating that no wake zone.

So we patrol it often while we're on the lake, mainly because of the damage that it could do to the the marina and the boat's tied up in the marina.

Well, there you go.

Breaking wake pretty big there.

Batter up.

Make sure they don't switch drivers.

All right.

Talking about the no wake right there?

Yeah, that would be the exact reason why we're stopping you.

Okay?

Yeah.

I was actually talking to the baby right here when it happened.

All right.

I'm Officer Caspar Fish and Wildlife.

The reason we pulled you over was because of the wake.

Yes, sir.

Can we see a life jacket for everybody on board, please?

Life jackets are very important.

When something bad happens on the water happens really fast, and you don't have time to put on a lifejacket, basically on a vessel.

Everyone on board has to have a life jacket that they can put on.

If you're under the age of 12, that child has to be wearing the lifejacket while the boat is underway.

So the other issue is the infant doesn't have a life jacket on.

Anyone under the age of 12 has to have a life jacket on at all times.

Okay.

Well, we bought it.

I've had to work a few drownings in my career.

I've only been on a little over three years now and I have already had to work a handful of drownings.

A lot of them, if not all of them, could have been prevented with a life jacket on.

I love being a conservation officer.

It's one of those jobs that I believe I was born for.

I love to hunt, fish, I love boating.

And that's what we do.

We enforce hunting, fishing and boating.

Ever since I was a kid, I realized I wanted to do something with the outdoors.

And when I found out there was essentially a police officer for the outdoors, for people that hunt fish and boat.

I knew that's what I wanted to do.

And ever since I've been hired on, it's exactly what I thought it was going to be.

I just love to get out there and do my part to keep people safe and ensure that hunting and fishing and boating will be around for my children.

What's your favorite type of hunting?

I get asked this question all the time, and for me, it's simple.

It's rabbit hunting.

Nothing beats the sound of listening to the dogs and spending the day in the field with family and friends.

Henry County has rabbits.

There are so many good spots in Henry County that I feel really comfortable, even though we've never been here before.

We're going to get some bunnies up Time to load them up.

Rabbit Number one is on the move.

You hear that one?

That's real high pitched squeal.

Scream that dog, when it barks, it's the rabbit's up.

It's Right in front of her.

we're out here in Henry County today doing one of my absolute favorite things, and that's rabbit hunting.

I've got a crew of people here that I've done some hunting with in the past.

A lot of football coaches and former football players but today is the day to get out.

They're going to talk a little football, talk about hunting and fishing and why they just love being outdoors.

Pat, Is that your first rabbit?

Fist right.

First one of the day to hey, hey.

Come here.

Hey, come here.

Come here, Come here, Come here, Look here Pat.

Look at we got here the dogs.

Dogs tried to claim that one first rabbit ever.

First one.

Can't beat that.

So we didn't.

We didn't see it.

So was it close to Is it in the woods?

It was running through and it was running down here in this creek kinda.

Okay.

And that's where I shot it.

First rabbit, hey you get three more today.

So, four is the limit you get you get plenty more shooting.

I must have some pretty good teachers.

First rabbit?

Yeah.

dropped my water down there.

All the thorns down there and I got a spray bottle now.

I started, I was a rookie free agent to Green Bay After I graduated in the spring of ‘04 I was there till the last cut and ended up getting released.

And ended up singing on the practice squad for New York Then I ended up making the roster.

I was there in ‘04 and █05 in New York.

Then I went to Saint Louis in ‘06.

And then Dallas in ‘07.

Ok.

So Pat was at Green Bay for a year.

Yeah.

We were actually talking about it for a little bit He was there a little bit before me.

But a couple of guys I played with when I was there He played with there as well.

Oh ok. Whitetail.

There it is, right there We both missed?

Here he goes, here he goes.

Here he goes.

Hey, we got rabbits run everywhere Well, the dogs brought one rabbit down through here.

And they sight chased another one right out.

And I shot him right over here.

We got rabbits going every which Lookey there, double trouble.

ok, ok, you got em, you got em.

Here it goes, right here, right here.

Coming at you Nick.

Coming at you Nick.

Here you go Nick.

Right here buddy.

Nice.

Nice work.

Nice job.

Yes, sir.

Way to go, yes sir.

Yeah.

That thing.

Thing.

It's the same rabbit.

I do think it's the same rabbit.

Yeah.

Yeah, but I do think there's another one or two up here.

And then.

He said that dale saw four or five over there.

Really?

So we've got all kinds of more rabbits in here.

Well let█s go get them.

Yes.

Right.

Right there.

Right there.

That█s number two.

Got one!

You got the rabbit?

Yeah.

Sweet.

Nice job.

Yeah I missed that first shot.

I got a better aim.

On that second one.

Took my time and Aimed through it.

Did you get him?

Yep.

Dead rabbit.

The doges made it quiet.

And uh, I was kind checking through this ridge.

They haven█t been coming into the open field today as much.

They been kinda Staying in these creeks and these ridges.

Um so, I just I saw him going over top of this ridge.

And he kinda stopped.

When they heard the dogs barking a little bit more.

It crossed over this ridge, And over top of this creek.

And kinda came into a clearing When I had a clear shot I took it.

Pat, you got two bunnies today, too.

That's pretty good I hear.

Yeah, that is good.

You know what?

We kill a lot of rabbits today.

Had a lot of fun dogs.

They ran a lot and put a lot of miles on them.

I appreciate you guys coming out and doing this.

And hopefully we get out and get a chance to do it one more time.

Well, can you believe it?

2023 has come to an end.

And if you're like me, I'm already planning my adventures for 2024.

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.