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'll be headed to Dale hollow Lake in search of trophy sized crappie.

Then we're headed down to Rockcastle River WMA to battle some invasive plant species from the air.

But first, we're heading out with some buddies and have the beagles loaded up for a good old fashioned rabbit hunt.

This morning we're out here rabbit hunting in Shelby County.

All of the deer seasons have finally wound down, opening up some access to some new properties.

I've got a couple of old buddies I have rabbit hunted with a lot.

We've got I don't know how many dogs on the ground.

I brought three, my buddy Dale Davis here, he's probably got 4 or 5.

And we're looking forward to a great day of running some rabbits.

Hopefully we get a couple shots and just spending time with good friends.

This is what rabbit hunting is all about.

There he went.

There he goes.

He went down the hill.

Coming to you Nick!

Right there.

Oh, man.

We heard a couple of shots.

Hopefully Nick got that rabbit.

Did you get him?

No.

That was an easy shot, too.

There he goes.

We got one cross right here too.

They jumped that one right there by Dale and then two just ran out of this brush pile.

And I don't think we've got one.

Conservationists in the truest sense.

Goly, man.

Oh my gosh.

Did you get that one?

No.

Gosh.

Hey, you want borrow my gun?

It don't do you no good if you can't hit them.

Come on.

Here he is.

Here he is.

Where is he at?

Here he is.

Here he is.

Here he is.

Find him.

Look at that rabbit right there.

Hey watch over there.

Way out of the very end of this point.

Coming at you, coming down the hill.

Get him?

Got him.

Yes!

All right.

Finally.

That was a hard earned rabbit.

Wasn█t it?

Yeah, finally.

All right.

Man, we worked hard for that.

Good rabbit.

There he goes.

There went another one Tim coming your way.

Coming to you Chad!

We got rabbits going everywhere.

There he goes.

That rabbit has come out twice right here.

One time was a little too far away, but I still took a shot.

The dogs ran him back in and I didn't have a shot because I'm shooting at the truck.

Dale had a perfect shot.

I don't know if he got it or not.

There he goes again.

Same rabbit, same spot.

Three different occasions.

I was standing up there, kind of in between the brush pile and that house.

Yeah.

And right at this point, I mean, literally within a foot or two of the point.

Yeah.

Rabbit would just pop out.

He kept easing through there, you know, when you see the weeds move.

But they're hard to see in there.

You know, then that one, I saw him walk up there and sit down and I couldn't see him.

And I went over and stepped on him and he took off.

We know we ran a couple this way, and we've got all this fence line.

Right?

Oh, yeah.

We'll start making our way.

Yeah.

We're going to run some more rabbits.

Oh, when we get over there it'll be real good.

There he is.

Right here.

Right here.

Did I get him?

Well, I'm out here guarding this field, thinking that rabbit would come back through.

And I believe Dale just got that rabbit.

Yeah, I got him.

Here he is dead, dead, dead dead, dead.

Well, he made a couple loops, and we finally got him, but they've been, They've been pretty tricky today so far.

And, the dogs worked good on that rabbit.

Got him?

Yeah.

Yes.

I just saw Nick raised his gun and shoot.

It's right the direction the dogs are pushing.

So see if he got that rabbit.

Well, they ran it all the way down through here.

They've been running about five minutes, and they come down.

Trailed it right down where they're at right now.

The rabbit stopped and we shot it.

Pretty good size rabbit.

Dead rabbit.

Dead rabbit.

Dead.

Dead Dead.

Dead.

And now they're yelling dead.

So it looks like they got that rabbit.

So nice job.

We, we got several rabbits in here that we've seen, so we're going to get them on another rabbit.

But that was that was a great shot.

There he went right there.

Coming to you Chad.

I hate those close shots.

Get him?

The tree got in the way.

Rabbit ran right by the tree, and I hit the tree.

That tree got in the way, but I still got it.

Dogs chased it down and grabbed it.

Got a hold of it a little bit, but we found it.

There you go, bub.

Good job.

I don't know if he got it or not.

Here he is.

Here he is, boy.

Here he is.

Here he is.

C.J.

Come here.

Good boy, good boy.

You think there's not a rabbit in that hole?

Look at those dogs.

See all these holes right here?

This is definitely a spot for a rabbit.

There he went.

There he went.

You get that one?

Yeah.

Nice job.

Thank you.

My wife's got some pizzas up here.

I'm gonna bring them down here.

Looks like Nick just shot his fourth rabbit.

So that's great.

He's got a limit.

Get him out of here.

Come on, get him out of here.

I'll tell you what.

Sometimes it happens really quick.

Bad shooting right there.

By the time I got around that tree.

I never picked it back up good and missed it.

All right, let's get reloaded.

Because that rabbit is probably going to come back.

Well, I got caught.

They brought me a piece of pizza.

That's the thing about hunting here in Shelby County.

You got pizza close by.

They deliver pizza to the field.

Low and behold a rabbit comes.

I had to shoot it like this.

Pinky fire.

But I think we got one down.

A little bit of luck involved in that one.

Now, this is what rabbit hunting is all about.

Come out with friends, get some work with the dogs.

And today's hunt was fairly simple.

We hunted on a farm that's less than 50 acres.

But how many acres think we hunted today?

I'd say ten, maybe at the most.

You see, this farm is really nice and clean.

Except for the certain areas that we hunted.

The 5 or 10 acres.

Yeah.

And that's what it takes to have really good rabbit habitat.

And you don't have to have a lot of property if you've got areas that are grown up and thick.

you got briers and stuff, that's hard to walk through.

I wish we had more farms like this.

Yeah for sure.

Even if it's small, it doesn't matter.

It's about the right habitat.

That's right.

Appreciate you guys coming.

Thank you guys.

It was fantastic.

Dale Hollow Lake may be known for its world record smallmouth bass, but don't overlook the crappie.

This March cold morning.

I'm out here with Preston Cleary.

With Cleary█s Kentucky Fishing.

We're on Dale Hollow Lake and, you know, typically we come to Dale hollow.

People know this lake for smallmouth fishing and bass fishing, but we're doing something different today aren█t we?

Yeah we█re gonna go catching some big crappie on Dale Hollow.

Crappie fishing on Dale hollow?

I've seen a bunch of big crappie.

I've actually caught some big crappie.

But what people don't realize is this is one of the Premier Leagues to go catch a big limit of crappie, isn't it?

Yes.

We've got some very big crappie here.

Sometimes they can be a little bit difficult because that's what Dale Hollow█s famous for.

If you know where to look, you can catch them.

This lake is, really clear.

If you█ve ever been to Dale Hollow Lake, it's notoriously clear water.

So we've had a lot of rain the last month or so.

The water is stained up, but on the other end of the lake, it's crystal clear again.

So we may fish a little clear water and some stained water today.

Yeah, we're going to be fishing Some muddy water and we're gonna be fishing some clear water.

I'm interested to talk to you today and find out how your technique changes depending on water quality.

Well it changes day to day.

In mud the fish tend to be a little bit more aggressive, but it's harder to get that bait on them and present it to them.

Clearer water They'll run farther, but they're smarter.

Okay.

They're a little bit, less out the bite.

You were telling me.

And we'll talk about this a little bit later on.

You're telling me sometimes you use as little as 2 pound test line?

Yeah, we're going to be using some 2 pound today.

And, the highest I go out here right now is 4 for casting.

And then I'll use for a long rod.

I'll use, ten.

Okay.

But I use all fluorocarbon.

Black, white crappie mixture?

Both?

We're going to be catching a mixture later in the day.

But first we're going to stop in a place we're going to get some blacks and black nose.

Okay.

All right.

Hey black nose crappie.

That's not something you see everywhere.

We've got some big ones here.

All right, well, let's get after it.

I'm ready to go.

All right.

So I'm just going to ease up through here.

And we're looking for a fish just gliding across the top of the water, and I'm going to figure out how to attack it.

And you're saying we're talking like shallow two, two and three feet, Yeah.

I'm looking for a fish that's going to.

He's going to fill up half the grid square.

So there's two feet.

So half half there.

You're looking at a 12 inch fish or close to it.

Yeah.

I use, some ten foot rods because they're very forgiving when you set the hook.

Yeah.

And this color mud we can use about any color.

They're pretty aggressive.

White chartreuse is a really good color for the mud.

Because what what color are fish in the mud?

They're usually white.

White?

Yeah.

So bait fish are going to be white.

Little slip-float.

this float here, I'll carry a 1/16 and I've got a 1/16.

Jig on here.

I'm looking.

So what I'm looking for on here is I'm looking for a fish just running horizontal and, not moving much.

Giant, giant, giant.

Oh, my gosh, look at that crappie.

Oh my Gosh.

Oh, I mean, is that pretty common?

This is a giant.

Yeah.

We got a lot of them like that but this is this is huge.

That is a giant.

And I caught it on a 20ft rod.

Oh my gosh, what a beautiful fish You know the one you lost earlier wasn█t quite that big.

No, he wasn't quite that.

It was a really good fish.

How deep was it, Chad?

Less than two feet.

Yeah, less than two foot deep.

And this is what people come in the hollow to catch too.

This is a giant.. You don't get them like that every day, But caught him right on the surface of the water just so I know.

And the.

You told me that we were going to be fishing open water two feet deep near no cover.

I was like, this doesn't sound like crappie fishing but I'm a believer.

Yeah, that's just a massive, massive fish.

What a nice fish.

Let's go get us another one.

Just right there, Chad.

That's it.

There you go.

You're right on him.

You are right on him.

He█s about to get it, Chad.

He█s about to get, he█s nosed up.

you got it.

Oh, that's a good crappie.

Let me get out of the way.

Let me get that net.

Did you feel him hit?

No.

I watched the bobber bounce.

Oh, did you?

Another good crappie.

That's another two isn█t it?

Yes.

He is.

Wow.

Oh my gosh.

So you don't even need a, measuring board here at this point it's a keeper.

You're either in or you're out.

Oh, my gosh, that thing feels like I'm holding a cast iron skillet.

Look at that.

You know, for years, 25 years, I've been coming to dale hollow crappie- Excuse me, smallmouth fishing.

And I had no clue that that type of a meal was sitting down there.

And I have avoided them for 25 years.

That's a plateful, isn't it?

That is.

Look at that fish.

What a beautiful crappie.

It's another two pounder.

Nice job man.

We got more to catch.

Right there, Chad.

That's got it.

Yeah, yeah, come on back just a touch right there.

He didn't see it.

Didn█t see it did he?

Oh, so we're gonna get back on him.

Go down just a touch.

Just like an inch or two or about 2 in 2 or three inches.

It makes a difference.

Oh, I bet.

This fish will hammer it whenever he sees it.

He's right there, Chad.

Yeah.

25.

That's got it.

Yep.

Got a good one.

On your side.

Oh that's a good that's a good fish.

Wow.

There we go.

How deep was he?

As deep as that fish was 18in or something.

Yeah, yeah.

Look at there, man.

No throwbacks.

But you are actually measuring those fish on the screen.

I█m measuring them.

You kind of know we‘re throwin█ at the fish and most likely it's going to be a keeper.

Yeah.

Measuring them.

I'm picking up a pattern and I'm measuring those fish before we throw on them.

But man, the bait has to be right on them.

You've got to touch his nose.

You got to literally put it on their face.

And look, I just barely skin hooked that fish.

I just about missed him.

Dale hollow crappie.

I've seen people catch them.

I've known they've been down there for a long time, but I just didn't know the quality.

That's the smallest one we got of the day.

Yeah.

That's a that's a really nice fish.

Yeah.

That's that's a lot of other places█ big fish.

These are not schooling.

These are singles.

Single fish.

single fish.

In 35ft of water set in 18in deep.

Oh, oh , oh, I didn't see that one hit.

Oh, let me get on this side.

My bad.

It's another two isn█t it?

Yeah, that's a good one.

I did not see that one bite.

I guess you felt him, huh?

Yeah.

He goes bang!

Man, I tell you what, that fish took a minute out in it.

Yeah, it took a minute.

You got to really hold it on him.

You keep the bait on them long enough they will eat it, won't they?

Yeah.

The quality of the fish, it's worth it, you know.

It's worth it.

Just spending a little bit of time, you know, 4 or 5, six minutes.

Go to the next fish and if they'll, if they want it, they will ultimately take it.

Now these are giants that we█re catching.

Oh yeah.

These are just beautiful beautiful crappie.

Huge fish.

Well, Preston, Dale Hollow is not really known for crappie.

And you just showed me today that big quality crappie are here in big numbers.

Yeah.

We've got, we've got some two pounders a day.

We got a 2.10, 2 pound, ten ounce fish right here.

Giants.

And, we've got some giant crappie here and, we've had a good time today.

I mean, we've had we've had a blast.

And, you know, it might not be the first place you think of, but maybe it should be if you want to come catch big quality crappie, Dale Hollow should be on your list to come give it a try.

Tell you one thing.

You got all the table fare you could want for a couple people today, don't you?

Yeah.

Wildlife biologist use many tools to battle the invasive plant species found on some of our WMS, including drones and helicopters.

We're here on Rock Castle River Wildlife Management Area in Pulaski County.

The prior land use on this property was strip mining and during that, especially during the reclamation stage.

Oftentimes, landowners will use fast growing species to put back on the landscape.

In some instances, especially previously, they used species that are non-native invasive species.

So in June of 2023, we started a fairly extensive invasive species removal project.

We rented a dozer and actually spent a month dozing out autumn olive, bush honeysuckle, multi-flora rose, and basically just piling up these invasive species.

To eliminate or reduce the amount of autumn olive specifically on this property.

Doing one thing alone is not going to be the answer.

We've got to follow that up with other types of management practices.

So prescribed fire is another tool that we're using and then of course this herbicide treatment and we're trying to adapt, you know, as things evolve and technology is coming along.

And so we had the money to go ahead and fund this project to get the helicopter out here, do the aerial spraying.

We did 330 acres of that, and then we followed that up with 65 acres of the drone treatment out here today.

It's just a really good way to get a good coverage of herbicide across the area.

And it's a different technique, something that we haven't done in the past.

So we can compare those two practices and just see which one is going to be the most efficient moving forward.

Non-native invasive species are really good at establishing quickly on the landscape.

They can reproduce very quickly.

They can also spread very rapidly and pretty much cover a landscape and smother out all of the native species.

If you don't get every single stitch of root out of that autumn olive, it will re sprout.

So the helicopter coming in, basically what we're doing is we can spray 333 acres fairly quick.

We can get a landscape level impact for the habitat and for the local wildlife.

So you're talking about a very large impact really quick.

Autumn olive is one of the most hearty plants and hard to kill plants out there.

And he was able to run that thing with 95 gallons of herbicide in it, and he was treating about 20 to 25 acres at a time.

And then he would run that herbicide out, come over and land it on top of the tanker truck, refill it.

So we could see we were getting a good coverage of herbicide that's being treated.

Herbicide application with a helicopter has allowed us to address multiple acres.

In the project that we've done this week that would have taken us months on the ground if we were spraying it via a tractor or if we were going in and actually cutting those down.

So it's much, much more time efficient and then also cost efficient when you look at all the cost, that is rolled into there.

So helicopter application is definitely something that is going to benefit us at being able to address large acres of this species over time.

We're also spraying with the drone and the drone is actually going to be used to spray a different type of invasive called sericea lespedeza.

It's more of an herbaceous weed that grows in these poor soils.

And what it does is it basically takes over as well.

It outcompetes all your native species and has zero benefit for wildlife.

The drone is going to treat a smaller area, but for situations like this, we had 65 acres here today.

We could have never contracted that chopper to come over and do that because it's not worth their time.

So drone comes over.

They got a 25 gallon tank on it, you know, much smaller than what the chopper is.

It's a slower process, but this guy's flying like 13 feet above the vegetation.

Same set up.

He's got a tablet.

We can see the transects he█s flying.

We keep the herbicide where we want it.

And you can see in the video, I mean, he's getting awesome coverage on everything that we're spraying.

And so it's another tool in the toolbox for us.

If we're treating a smaller area, we can call on the drone to come in and do it.

Or if we've got these bigger acreage plots, three, four or 500 acres or more, I think that's at a place where we want to use the chopper.

Not only are we addressing that acreage here on Rock Castle River WMA, but we're also looking to expand this and have done that on some of our WMAs in eastern Kentucky as well.

The landscape is extremely similar and unfortunately it's inundated with these non-native invasive species such as autumn olive and sericea lespedeza.

The next step is we're actually going to come in next week, once some of these weeds start dying down, and we're going to drill native warm season grasses and forbs.

We have a lot of quail in this area and there's not very good nesting cover or escape cover for those quail, which is what you need.

So we're going to come back in and plant some native warm season grasses, which acts as their nesting cover, and then some forbs as well, which brings in those insects.

It allows for good brooding habitat for young poults and it creates great browse for deer as well.

So it's kind of a one stop shop.

Once we get some native cover on the ground, that's actually going to be a fire tolerant species and it's going to allow us to run some hot fires through this.

The thought process is that we're going to be able to set back these invasives over time.

That way we can provide better habitat for all of our wildlife species.

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 nine year old Morgan Nunnally of Pendleton County with her first squirrel.

She took this squirrel with her new 22 cricket.

Nice job.

Check out this beautiful nine point buck that was taken by Ryan Asher in Grant County.

He took this deer during the modern firearm season.

Nice buck.

Winter time is the time for crappie fishing.

Just ask Ricky Elliott.

He caught this beautiful fish at Cave Run Lake.

Nice job.

Nine year old Trigger Williams got his first limit of mallards while hunting recently in Henderson County.

Nice job.

Spring here in Kentucky will be here before you know it.

Start planning your outdoor adventures today.

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