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 have a little bit of adventure for everyone.

A little fishing, some small game hunting.

But first up, we're going on a deer hunt with a video producer named Tim Sherrard.

Well, Tim, you and I over the last three years, you█ve been a video producer at Kentucky Afield, something like that?

Yeah.

Three years.

We've had a lot of chances to get out and hunt together, but this is a little different.

Today, you're not carrying a camera.

You're actually carrying a rifle.

Yeah, that's right.

It's a it's a little weird, but I'm really excited for it.

I tell you what, I have high expectations for this spot, because the way this wind is blowing, we can use these woods.

We're going to be on the ground.

We're going to be able to see a lot of ground.

And if we see some deer, we might be able to use the hillsides to make a move.

But I say we get up there on the end of this, this little tree line right on top of this hill.

I think that'll be probably our best bet.

It's going to be a good hunt.

This little spot we can tuck in right there.

We ought to be able to see all the way to that big white tree, which I think is about 400 yards from here.

If you kill a doe and get a chance to double, then i█ll probably take a shot.

But I'll tell you what, this field right here, I've seen more coyotes in this field, so I went on ahead and brought my rifle.

If a deer comes out, you're comfortable with the shot, you want to take it, that's your hunt.

You do what you want.

If a coyote comes out, hold your ears.

i█m going to try and take it.

That sounds good with me.

Well Tim, you shot a lot of fish and a lot of wildlife with a camera for Kentucky field over the last three, three and a half years.

Being able to get out and deer hunt is really cool.

And I'm- you got two little ones at home.

Yup.

So, you know, your time is kind of a premium right now.

And I bet you're super excited about getting them outdoors.

It won█t be long.

Your son.

Your son's one and a half, right?

Yeah, about to turn two actually in a few days.

You actually went to EKU and got a degree and met your wife, you played volleyball there?

Yeah.

She's from California.

That's right.

And you didn█t have to talk her into staying in Kentucky.

She said Kentucky was for her.

She wanted to stay here and raise a family.

That's right.

Yeah.

I got really lucky, lucked out, and she wanted to stay and raise a family.

Thought I hit the jackpot, so.

It sounds like you did.

Yeah, that's right.

Now you got two beautiful kids.

You got a son and a daughter.

When you've produced video shows, do they ever have any interest in watching something that Daddy worked on?

Right now, my son's in the stage of learning what animals and what they sound like.

Okay.

Recently, when Turkey season rolled around last spring, I went on to the YouTube page for Kentucky Afield and we watched my old turkey hunting segment I did last spring.

That hen called that gobbler in for us.

Yeah.

He loved watching that.

He like the gobbling noise and everything.

That's so cool.

You've got to do some really hunts I mean, there was our Turkey segment that you're talking about.

You filmed an archery buck hunt three years ago.

Here he comes right now, let█s get ready.

Get ready.

You filmed an Elk hunt.

Numerous fishing pieces.

So let me ask and people ask me this question all the time, you like filming hunting or fishing better.

That's a tough question.

That█s a really tough question, I would say.

I mean, being out on the lake and the stillness and everything, it's hard to beat.

But I can say the same thing for sitting in the woods.

Yeah.

it's a it's a great time.

And if I find the answer, I█d probably pick hunting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, it's interesting because a fishing trip, there's not really a high point in a mecca.

Like, okay, the peak, this is what we're here for.

You know, you catch a couple of fish, multiple fish.

But when you█re on a hunting trip, and you're on a deer hunt or a turkey hunt.

When you pull that trigger and you take whatever game you're hunting for, you know, that was a crescendo.

That's why we're here, right?

So it kind of has more a little more excitement I think.

Yeah, It's a little bit more reward, I guess you could say.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun when it all pays off and everything lines up.

They're all rewarding in some form or fashion.

And it's amazing the job that you guys do, taking a day in the field and turn it into an eight minute story.

Yeah.

So I appreciate all the effort that all you guys put in it.

And today- yeah.

Hopefully you get out here and it█s going to take longer than 8 minutes, but hopefully you get to sit out here today and we get a chance to take it doe.

Yeah, pleasure's all mine.

It's a it's a great opportunity.

I loving every second of it.

You can see a lot of ground there, can█t you?

It's just natural for me.

I grew up just hunting on the ground with my dad all the time and this feels like home to me.

Hey, there's a deer, right along this ridge, right here.

It's really not that far away.

It█s in range.

It█s completely up to you.

We can either sit this out, we got about 30 minutes left or you can try to make a move right just about 30 yards up there and take a knee and try to get a shot.

I want to give it a try.

It's right through here.

I don█t see it right this second now.

Just look down there at the way this contours off, I can see a deer moving, feeding his way out there.

The problem is this hillside, you got to play the wind.

It came out right exactly where we walked through.

Unfortunately with our wind blowing and we just didn't have a move on it.

But we still got some time.

Got two does, coming out right across from us right here.

You see?

Oh, man.

That one ran out.

Now we just have one, but it's coming right at us.

Maybe she'll start making her way left in the middle of the field on this ridge.

That's a nice sized doe.

And she's not looking our way.

See If you can make a spin on her.

Move now, move now, there you go.

She's looking away.

There you go.

Just pick the whole- Uh, she was looking away when she spooked.

She was looking away from us when she took off.

Oh, here comes a buck.

You see that buck?

That's what freaked her out.

Oh, that's a pretty good buck too.

Walking right at us.

Oh, my gosh.

That is a beautiful ten-pointer.

That is definitely what freaked her out.

He's running like he's been hit.

Oh, man.

Oh, We thought those does were going to come out and give us a shot and then they turned and took off running.

I look back, I just saw antlers.

I'm like, “that's a good deer.” That was a great there.

You think that's the biggest buck you ever killed?

Oh, hands down.

Yeah.

That was- man.

He was not near as cautious as those does were.

He had his head on the ground.

He had his mind on one thing, and it wasn't us.

No, not at all.

Not at all.

Oh, gosh.

I blacked out.

That was ridiculous.

I- That was exhilarating.

I'll tell you what, when I said there█s a buck, did you immediately see it?

I did immediately see it.

I can tell you what, my heart just beat right through the roof.

It was crazy.

Oh man, I could hear you breathing.

Yeah.

You got on it really quick.

Yeah.

I didn't do nothing.

I just had the perfect spectator seat to watch it all go down.

That's right.

Yeah, I kind of know how you guys feel about that.

I was sitting there watching.

I heard you make, you know, you went merp and that deer locked up and stopped, and, I mean, you were- you must have been crosshairs on Ready to go.

Yeah.

You immediately pulled the trigger, and I saw the skin on that animal just ripple.

It turned and took off and kind of a little flag and a little bit.

But you could tell he was hurt.

Yeah.

Let's go check it out.

All right.

That sounds good.

I thought he was standing, like, right here.

I don't think it was this far down here.

Do you?

No.

I think it's up this way some.

Oh wait a minute, look.

Blood?

Blood right here.

Oh, here█s more.

Just another one.

All right, let me get my flashlight out, because I'm starting to see it's blending in.

But I think we're seeing more and more and more and more here.

All right.

Look at this blood right there.

We got some over there, too.

Okay.

I think he went this way.

Here we go.

More and more.

There.

There he is.

Oh, right.

There he is.

Oh, man.

Oh my gosh, dude.

Look at that.

Oh, wow.

That's a bruiser.

Look at that, dude.

That's a big deer.

Wow.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

If you count this end as two, it's 12.

He█s got a little broken-off tine right here.

Oh, man.

Wow.

What a beautiful, beautiful deer.

Yeah.

I could not be more excited for you.

You've been doing the family duty, raising kids, finally get a day to get out and you get one set.

Yeah.

And we thought, man, we had a doe and we didn't get to make a move on it because it came out right downwind on us.

Yeah.

In the waning minutes, two does come out and we thought, well, here we go, perfect.

We're going to get a chance to doe, and they run off because of this big guy.

This guy was out there.

I could smell him.

Oh yeah, he is fired up and ready to go.

He was.

And the second I saw the antlers i█m like Oh, my Gosh.

I could see there was at least six on a side and I was like, This is a big deer.

It is.

And man, did you put a smoke show shot on it.

He didn't go very far.

I just can't believe that.

I can't believe that I mean, presented just a perfect shot.

And it's just crazy how that works out.

You know?

It's beautiful.

It happens so fast.

You can sit there and you can think, Today I spent all this time in the woods and it was for nothing.

And then literally 20 seconds later, you're going, this was the greatest hunt of my life.

Oh, yeah.

That is the thing about hunting is that you just it goes from zero to hero in a matter of seconds.

10 seconds later, you're punching the buck tag with the trophy buck of your life.

Yeah, I couldn't be more happy for you, Tim.

Thank you.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

The leaves have fallen off the trees.

And the modern firearm season for deer is now over.

And that's the best time of year to put some dogs on the ground for a squirrel hunt.

We're down here in Trigg County today.

We're getting ready to do something that I don't get to do as much as I like, but it's always a blast, and that is squirrel hunting with dogs.

So you guys brought us down here and you got a big piece of property here that's got a bunch of wildlife on it.

And you brought some dogs with you.

What type of dogs you guys bring?

They█re fiest.

Okay.

Fiest.

So fiest dogs, they're kind of bred to do separate things, but squirrel hunting is what people use them the most for isn█t it?

They█ll tree other game, but mainly squirrels.

What we use ours for.

Yeah.

So this a piece of property that you own.

And you told me you've been squirrel in for a long time.

What makes hunting with the dog so much more exciting?

You never know what's going to happen.

Sometimes it's chicken, sometimes it's feathers.

So how many dogs we got today?

Got three.

Okay, three dogs.

And they're all mountain fiests.

How many dogs you bring?

I've got one dog and he█s got two.

Okay, let's go meet your dogs and put them on the ground.

All right.

You know, this is a little different style of hunting.

This this hillside, this kind of rolling and the terrain is rolling.

So what they like to do is to let the dogs out one at a time, let the dogs hunt out in front of them and they follow behind in the ATV.

So makes for a pretty casual day of squirrel hunting.

Rosie has got one treed.

We got two squirrels right here.

You're going to take the bottom one?

Whenever you're ready.

There you go.

Great shot.

Oh, there they go.

Lets walk over and see what you got.

Bring it here.

Thank you, darling.

Well, that was a good shot.

Rosie ran over here and grabbed one of these squirrels.

I don't know if she got the first one or the second one, but I found some blood.

Yeah.

There you go.

That's how it's done right there.

I was born in a tent in a saw mill in 1938, and I started squirrel hunting when I was five.

And we weren't sport hunting.

We were hunting to eat.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

So we killed one whenever our parents.

wanted to cook for a meal, so that's the way I started squirrel hunting.

Wow.

I've been doing it ever since.

Can you imagine turning a five year old loose with a 22 now to kill?

It was just a different time and place, wasn█t it?

I mean, you did it out in necessity, too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This tree won't hold still for me to shoot.

Good job.

Bring it here.

There you go.

Nice shot.

That dog did a great job.

Well, I'll tell you what.

I appreciate you guys giving me a little bit of history about squirrel hunting today.

We've talked about squirrel hunting from the time you was five years old.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate for us did it?

It's got a mind of its own.

You know, we know there's a ton of squirrels where we hunted and the dogs did really good considering the situation.

But we start dealing with these wind gusts of 20, 25, 30 mile an hour.

They decided to hole up on us, I think.

But I tell you what I really like, I like watching how you guys have used some of the modern day technologies of the GPS and the ATV.

It kept you out here chasing the squirrels up and down these hillsides.

So you don't see any end in this game, do you?

You're going to keep going aren█t you?

Thats right.

As long as I can.

And I really appreciate you coming out here and and bringing your dogs and and taking us on this hunt.

You're very welcome.

We appreciate you coming too.

It's been a lot of fun.

Hopefully the next time Mother Nature will cooperate and we'll have a better hunt.

Okay.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Are you an angler that's looking for new ways to access new bodies of water?

Well, maybe you should consider kayak fishing.

One of the questions I get all the time is “what's your favorite type of fishing to do?” I'm very fortunate that I get to do a lot of different styles of fishing, but today this is probably my favorite and that is bass fishing in the late winter / early spring, for bass.

This is the best time of year to go out and catch a really good fish.

So what type of conditions are you looking for?

I look for two or three days of fairly stable, warm weather.

The first two or three days that we get.

That's when the bass come from their winter hideouts in the deeper water, and they move up into the shallower flats, looking to feed and looking for a place to nest.

This is a really good time to catch a big fish.

If I can find a body of water, a pond or a small lake that doesn't get a ton of pressure, these are the perfect locations to catch big largemouth bass late in the winter, early in the spring.

Type of lures I like to use.

I like to start out fishing spinner baits, chatter baits, things like that.

Rattle traps.

A lot of vibration.

We're trying to create a lot of commotion.

Bigger lures.

If that doesn't work, then I'll start moving into a slower presentation.

Jerk baits.

They work really, really, really well.

Or bigger soft plastics like Senkos or maybe a brush hog or something like that that I can move at a slower pace.

I fished this place one time before.

I caught a really big fish.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, my goodness.

Seven pounds, six ounces.

Let's get the boats out and let's try to see if we can't catch a nice largemouth bass today.

I'm so incredibly excited.

I'll tell you what, I don't think you can beat starting off with a chatter bait in these conditions.

It's a pearl white color.

It's going to create a lot of vibrations in this stained water and I can move it really, really, really slow in and around cover.

Here we go.

What do we got here?

This thing hit the second that bait hit the water.

Oh, it's a big fish.

It's a good one.

It's a... this is a four or five pounder.

Oh, man.

Look at that.

Early March.

And this fish is plum full of eggs.

Oh, my goodness.

That thing was sitting in about less than a foot of water.

And it hit that chatter bait as soon as it made contact with the water.

This is probably pushing four pound fish.

I do have a scale.

Might want to weigh it.

See what we got.

Four pounds, one ounce because of that big fat belly.

Let's get it back in.

Turn it loose.

All right.

I'm going to pick up and move about another 30 feet.

We're going to kind of do that all the way down this bank.

Here we go.

Small fish.

I█ll tell you what a little bitty fish there.

I've got this small spinner bait, and it's in a gold, which is really good in stained color.

I never throw a spinner bait on a spinning reel, but I'm doing this today mainly because it's a very light spinner bait.

So it's working pretty well with this lighter line here.

So that's the reason I'm throwing a spinner bait on a spinning reel.

Here█s one.

Tell you what, these are fun to catch.

It█s amazing a body of water that's got so many fish in it, they█re really spread out.

All the small fish are down here where the wind is blowing in this shallow flat.

And it seems like the two really good bites I had were back that way.

So I'm going to sit down here and play around with these little more, try to catch a big fish down here, but if I don█t have any luck we█ll go back down there and fish that bank and try to pick up a big, pre-spawner.

Another ten inch large mouth.

Man it is amazing how they are choking that spinner bait down to be such a little fish.

I mean, when they hit it, it's gone.

Better watch out, buddy.

There's bass in here that█ll eat you.

Here we go.

Feels like that other fish.

Man they're stacked in here.

There's a little deeper water.

And it actually might be the creek channel that comes through here.

And these fish are sitting right in that deeper water, right on the edge.

Everything around them is stick ups in less than a foot deep.

Let's get this one back and make a move for some big ones.

There we go.

Oh man, not a big fish like I was hoping for, but it's in the big fish territory.

This bank right here has produced some really nice fish.

So I was hoping when I felt that strike, it was going to be a giant.

It's about four years away from that.

Or longer.

But hey, I'll take it.

Well, I didn't get my trophy today, but you'll never hear me complain about a day on the water where you catch a four pound plus fish.

And we did have one fish over four pounds.

Caught several other fish, had a great time.

And hey, we've got a lot of fishing left all Spring and spawn to go.

I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time this year on the water.

Check out this giant buck that was taken by Logan Koslow of Washington County.

He harvested this 10 pointer that he said he has been hunting for two seasons.

Nice job and great patience.

Here we have nine year old Ryder Carroll with his very first deer.

A nice seven point, but that was taken in the second weekend of the season in Allen County.

Nice job.

Parker Ashby took this beautiful ten point buck and Hopkins County on the opening day of modern gun season.

Nice job.

Julian Harden took this nice eight point buck on the opening day of modern gun season in Breckenridge County.

Congratulations, nine year old Sawyer Claire Thompson of Greene County took her very first buck on the family farm with her dad.

It was a seven pointer and she took it with her Ruger.

243.

Nice job.

Here we have Mikayla Ashley with her very first buck that she took on private land in Wayne County.

Nice job.

Are you still holding that buck tag?

Well.

Good news.

Muzzleloader season is just a few weeks away.

It opens up on December the 14th.

And remember, hunting and fishing on private property is a privilege.

Always ask permission to 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.