Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

Join us as we journey the Commonwealth in search of outdoor adventure.

And this week's adventure takes us to the Cumberland River trout fishing.

Then we're going to hit the mountains of eastern Kentucky and join up with biologists on a bear den study.

But first, this is the time of year to grab a rod and reel and hit a farm pond in search of trophy largemouth bass.

Well, March is finally here and that gets me super excited about hitting the water.

You know, I love to wintertime fish on the big lakes all winter long.

But when it comes to pond fishing, you know these waters cool down much faster in the winter and warm up much quicker in the spring.

So we've had some pretty nice days.

We had a couple- yesterday, was sunny and in the 60s today and it is super windy.

Not sunny, but it's also gonna be in the 60s, so this is the perfect time after a day or two of warm weather to get out and chase a big fish.

Now type of tackle that I like to use this time of year is slow moving tackle.

As much as I love to throw a swim bait or something like that.

This is going to be more worm senko style fishing or maybe a chatter bait.

If I want something that is going to be moving.

So I'm going to go with, a weightless, really slow sinking senko.

This here is a 5 or 6 inch.

I've also got a smaller version and a different color on the spinning rod.

These senko style stick baits are very salt impregnated and they█re heavy enough that I can make a cast without any weight.

That will make them sink at a really slow rate.

It takes more patience.

It takes more time.

But this particular presentation here is the way that I've had more bites in really cold weather.

So I'm really excited.

Some of the biggest fish I've caught have been in ponds and they've been in February and March.

So this February was a little colder than normal.

But today, after a couple of warm days, is a great opportunity to catch a big fish.

So I'm going to walk the edge of this pond and try to find out where the warmest water is and fish in some structure, so let's go after it.

Oh my gosh.

Oh, look what greeted me.

Look at the size of that snapper sitting right there on the bank.

Is he alive?

Oh, yeah.

See his head moving?

I that's an old snapping turtle right there now.

All moss covered up.

Spent the winter laying down there on the bottom.

He knew that sun and that warmer weather was here today.

He came out to get a little bit of sunshine.

Man, that's a big turtle right there now.

Now, after just two days of nice, warm weather, I like to start off on the shallow sides of the ponds.

Now, as much wind as we've got today.

You see this wind kind of blowing this water.

And as it goes on throughout the day, you may end up in a situation where the water temperature is about the same because of the wind.

And, but I always like to start out on the shallow side because it will warm the fastest.

You almost can't move this lure or too slow in these type of conditions.

I don't know what the water temperature is, but I'm going to guess it's in the 40s.

So it's cold.

That's why that snapping turtle is out of that water, because the air temperature is a lot warmer.

So we're going to move this bait really, really, really slow today.

Hopefully if I can get in around some structure, find a big 5 or 6 pounder or who knows, maybe even bigger laying down there so we can entice a bite.

Here you go.

Fish on First fish of the day and it's not a bad start.

This is on that.

Oh, man.

I don't know what we've got here, but this is a good start to the day.

If this is a bass.

Oh, man, I hope I don't have that big snapping turtle.

What do we got?

Oh, it's a bass.

And a good one.

This right here is why you get out and fish early.

It's not about numbers.

It's about catching some good sized bass.

And look at this: irst one of the day is about a 6 pound fish.

You may have to make me get in.

I got him on 8 pound test.

Got him.

Look at that.

What a beautiful, beautiful bass.

My very first bass on my new fishing license.

Early March.

First time out.

First fish of the day.

Cold.

This fish is so cold.

Big.

Beautiful bass.

Healthy.

This will be a spawner here in about 3 or 4 weeks from now.

This fish here will be a beautiful spawning bass.

What a nice, nice fish.

Again, as slow as I can move that little senko.

I felt the smallest little tap and then my line started to move and I'm glad it did.

Well, about my fifth or sixth casts.

And that was a good fish.

That's exactly why I came out here today.

I don't know that I'll get more than six, eight, ten bites, but that fish right there was well worth it.

Now, interestingly enough, this pond kind of goes out and has a little bit of a drop about ten, 12ft out there.

And that fish was in the deeper water.

It was really, really, really cold.

It was into deeper water.

And there's some structure out there.

So, you know, I started off in the really shallow areas, but that just told me that, in the structure on the deeper end might be where I even catch a bigger one.

I about fell in.

This motion, what it is you see with the Senko is a lot of just picking it up.

Just.

I mean, just a few inches off the bottom, shaking it and letting it sink back down.

And then reeling up the slack.

And when I say slow, it's painstakingly slow.

But in this 40 degree water temperature, these fish are not going to be willing to chase this bait across the bottom.

It's going to be an opportunistic feed where it just so happens to be right there in front of their face.

Oh, just got a bite.

I don't know that he got it, but 100% just got a bite.

There's a school of smaller fish right there that- see ‘em hitting it?

See that?

Yeah.

The way these are hitting, they're hitting way more aggressive.

Way more aggressive than that bigger fish.

It's just pop pop pop snap.

And, that just tells me that these are smaller fish.

And quite a few of them out there.

A little different than the last.

But you know what?

A good, healthy pond it takes all sizes.

That one there needs about four years.

There's a bunch of them out there, though, because that's about the third bite in a row I've had.

You know, the interesting thing about this is that this time of year, I actually fish in exactly reverse of the way that I would be fishing this pond in say a, a month, month and a half from now, and that I would come in here and fish a fast moving bait first and try to pick up the real aggressive fish and then go back in with the slower moving bait and really go back after the structure and try to pick up some big fish that, that maybe aren't willing to chase a bait down in cold water conditions.

Like, now, you know, we're in the very first few days of March.

I'm going to go in reverse.

And what I want to do is I'm going to go and try to pick up, especially fishing in the morning I'm going to try to pick up the slow moving fish on these slow moving baits.

And then as the day progresses and we hit warmer temperatures, hopefully 60 degrees today and more wind, I will then come back and try to present a moving presentation just to make sure I don't miss anything that is willing to be more aggressive.

So it's almost an exact opposite.

If I was fishing here in April, it would be pick off the aggressive, fast moving fish and then come back and go with the slow moving presentation today.

Slow moving presentation until you get later in the day.

Sun's up a lot of wind.

I'll go to a little quicker moving presentation.

Still not fast.

It'll be a chatter bait.

About as slow as I can move it and get it to move.

Get it to vibrate.

Oh, it█s another small fish.

Oh, a little better.

Not exactly what we're looking for, but a little better than the last couple.

He hit it hard.

Man, that fish smoked it.

Just a little bit bigger, but still really small bass.

Well, that's about a perfect early March day.

You come out, spend a couple hours, walk around the pond, was able to get what I expected, probably somewhere in that neighborhood of 8 to 10 bites.

And I got a one really good bite.

And you know what?

Over the next few weeks, the fishing should just get even better.

What I like to do this time of year is limit my tackle.

Literally put some things in my pocket.

I call it all but one fish on that little purple and blue Senko right there.

Keep it simple.

Couple hooks, a couple pieces of soft plastic.

Something you can move to the water really slow.

Have some patience and hold on.

Because this time of year the big fish are feeding and getting ready for spawn.

I was lucky enough today to hook into one of them.

There are a lot of ways to navigate the beautiful Cumberland River.

But for me, my favorite way is with a fly rod in a drift boat.

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.

Black bear populations continue to increase here in the state of Kentucky.

And that requires biologists to collect more and more data.

And that starts right after birth.

I'm here today in Wayne County with Doctor John Hast.

So we're here today to learn a little bit about bears.

And interesting enough we're going to actually go and check out a potential mother bear that may have some cubs.

Right.

So how long have you been doing this project?

How many bears have you got the sample.

And what do you what are you finding out?

Yeah.

So over the years, I mean, going back to when, I was a University of Kentucky and the people before me there, we've been doing bird and since about 2002, 2003. so we've got a huge long, 20 plus year data set as bears have increased their population here in Kentucky.

And we moved into a hunting season.

this has been something we've been doing, really since I was in Kentucky.

That long piece of rootman.

We'll go in on that side and then climb up on top of that log that drops off.

That█s the easiest way in, alright appreciate it.

what we got today, litter size.

and then what is the sex ratio of that litter.

this particular bear, this the second time we've denned her.

she's been wearing a collar for about four and a half years.

that's the other thing we do.

This is a good, easy opportunity to update her collar.

so two years from now, we'll probably come back and and check her out again.

All I see is two.

It's icy message Got their eyes opening.

About a month old.

Male or Female?

That's a male.

any other information in the 20 plus years you guys been doing bear study that you just find very interesting Yeah.

The biggest thing that I think and it's a, it's a wonder of the bear world is they will reproductively compensate based on like their density.

if they're in a place with a high density, they're going to produce more male offspring that then disperse out.

So they're leaving that area.

So somehow they can tell physiologically that the place has got a lot of bears.

They have more males.

Those males leave.

So they're almost controlling the population a little bit on their own biologically.

Yeah.

and so down here this is a little bit younger population.

We're not as high of a density.

We're seeing more females.

So when you look at our sex ratio between, say, Wayne and McCreary County to Harlan Letcher Pike places, we've had bears for a long time now, it is more skewed to females down here.

And it tells us a little bit about how our population are growing.

rate of these cubs that are making it to adulthood is pretty high in Kentucky, isn't it?

It is.

we don't have a lot of really good information on that true Cub survival.

But around the area including what the numbers we've got about 80 to 90%.

Wow.

That's spectacular.

Yeah.

It shows how quickly our populations grown.

So all we do with all our cubs, is we put a pit tag in them, which is a passive integrated transponder.

They'll have a unique barcode to each individual, and this will stay with them for the entirety of their life.

But we can take a scanner and be able to find those later on.

If this bear comes up, if we catch it again or if it shows up in harvest, we█ll be able identify that bear.

And when we caught it.

So between the sex and the number that's in the litter, that provides us with good data for our population estimation.

So these just go under the skin that's and that's it what we did today is a big component of of understanding how many new bears were recruited into the population annually.

you guys have got a lot of, metrics set into your, bear season.

If you're not a bear hunter to know that you're trying not to take females, you're trying not to take younger bears.

Right.

Exactly.

this is a great, thing to point out.

So with our den work, we know that our females that are expecting cubs go in the den mid December.

So I always get a lot of questions about why is or late rifle season in December so late.

Part of it is be conservative, we█re protecting some of these bears that we know we're having cubs here.

it can make hunting a little bit tougher.

But at the same time it's an opportunity to get out that's going to take more of those younger males.

It's conservative way to protect the resource and provide opportunity.

And that's really what the Department of Fish Wildlife tries to do.

Provide opportunity, protect the resource.

Now let's check in and see who else has been out having fun in this week's ones that didn't get away.

Check out Lindsay Phillips.

She has this nice largemouth bass that she caught while fishing out at Lake Jericho.

Congratulations.

Check out this beautiful 22 inch rainbow trout that was caught by Jonathan New at Hatchery Creek at Cumberland River.

Nice job.

The water levels on many of our lakes are starting to return to normal.

And the fishing is heating up.

Make plans now to get outdoors.

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.