4-13-25 - Massive Flooding at the Region's Lakes

On tonight's show, Jim and Scott talk about the massive flooding at the region's lakes and the effects flooding has had on fish and wildlife.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:44):
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Speaker 2 (01:00):
Good evening, everybody. Jim Straighter here with my co host
Scott Cronin and got I'm sure that everybody has had
weather on their mind. If they haven't, they must not
have been in the vicinity. So we're gonna kind of

(01:20):
kick things off tonight talking about this tumultuous weather, what's
going on with it. We're gonna talk about turkeys tonight
because it is turkey season and you've had some great hunts.
We're going to talk to you a bit about that,
and we're also going to talk about the lake levels,

(01:43):
fish conditions that exist. And I'm gonna reach back in
decades and decades of fishing to try to help people
get their heads around what we can expect going forward,
because it has certainly not been a pretty picture. Scott,
the area where you live down in West Kentucky has

(02:04):
been particularly hard to hit, and I don't think folks
really got their head around in some ways how historic
this is. And it's historic for a lot of reasons.
It's historic because of air temperatures and the water.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yep, it's devastating to human life.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
It's a very big inconvenience, and folks have tried to
find nurse strategies.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
And adapt to the water.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
But what we want to bring focus to tonight is
how wildlife is had to adapt and where they are
going to have struggles and kind of put some foresight
ahead of how this could impact our hunting, not just
this fall, but several falls ahead, along with how it's
impacting folks getting out to turkey hunting, how the fish

(03:00):
bond is on everybody's mind, and where we want water
to be and how we want it to go. But
there's not a tremendous amount of people in our society
anymore that have ninety plus years of living behind them,
and that's important because all of us can learn from
these floods and what has happened, especially with the change

(03:24):
in infrastructure, with the amount of asphalt and concrete buildings,
and how we've inhabited so much dirt with putting roots
and parking lots in place and cut diversion ditches and
utilized tiling and agricultural fields. Not only are we experiencing
a flood, we're all learning from how man and civilization

(03:48):
has developed on the landscape, and we've diverted water in
so many different types of ways and styles gym that
it's created not just flooding, but it's created flooding and
areas that folks never even thought flooding would occur just
based off lake and river levels because of the way
in which the water has flown, in the way in

(04:09):
which the water has been captured, and it's created this
massive amount of islanding to wildlife into a lot of
humans and a lot of folks and a lot of
critters are struggling right now.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well, I'd like I know people have seen some of
this on the news, but I'd like you to give
kind of an overview of how bad it really is
that in West Kentucky from the perspective, hundreds of thousands
of acres underwater. I mean, this is not spill out
in urals area if I understand this correctly, and I'll

(04:45):
let you talk to it. But I think you all
have actually reached or surpassed the thirty seven foot, have
you not.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
Well, there's areas that have just seen flooding that have
never seen flooding before. There's a lot of areas in
which people keep comparing it to the thirty seven flood.
It really just depends on where you're at, and it
goes back to that, how is water being fed into
different sections in different parts of these rivers and these
river valleys, and it brings a lot of consideration into

(05:16):
play when folks understand a floodplain, whether that's on a
twenty year, fifty year, one hundred year level.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
A lot of folks have had their.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Eyes opened and they've got to experience this because of
how we've changed and manipulated how water should naturally flow.
We have created that diversion of water that I've talked
about that it's done things. But to put it into scale,
if anyone's ever got to travel down four thirty one,

(05:46):
or got to travel on parts of McLean County or
anywhere through western Kentucky where most people would assume that
it starts is you're driving for miles all the way
until the time that you caross the Ohio River, and
you can go into Tell City, Indiana or Derby and
there is sheets of water and then there are feet

(06:10):
of water, and it's endless. It looks like a just
an ocean of fresh water. And it's impacting not only
the agricultural flat lands, it's also impacting a lot of
this rolling pasture ground and a lot of our woodland and.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Our forest habitat.

Speaker 4 (06:29):
So this one's a little different gem It takes the
use of drones and helicopters to get out and see
these aerial images, but it's also important for folks to
get out and take a good country drive and maybe
go visit a restaurant or go visit a town that
they haven't been to in a while, just to see
how much of an undertaking this is. And it's not

(06:51):
going to go away anytime soon. We're going to see
the waters from these floods stick around in some areas
for I think up to several months, and we'll get
into that later in the program.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yes, sir, because the impacts again, we're going to talk
to all these issues, but the impacts on the spawn,
the impacts on the wildlife, the impacts on the farming,
everything has come together in a pretty negative way, and
we're going to try to put, you know, our best
foot forward on whatever silver linings there are, and there

(07:22):
are some, but this has been pretty catastrophic all the
way around. Now there's some aspects to it that we're
going to dive into. For example, their temperatures have been
goofy too, and in a way, that's part of the
silver lining we're going to talk about, especially when we're
going to be speaking about fish, So Scott and I'll

(07:43):
give you a great rundown on this. I'm going to
give some of the lake levels coming back from the break,
and these are pretty astonishing, and again it will put
a perspective on it. I'm sure a lot of folks
like me have been very, very frustrated and unable to fish.
And we're going to speak to what you can expect
going forward. But I remember mother Nature holds all the cards,

(08:08):
and we're going to do our best to prognosticate. I
guess is the best way I can describe it, what
we can reasonably expect going forward if conditions stay relatively
stable or normal, which again up till now they have
certainly not been. So. With that, let me go to break.

(08:28):
The break is presented by SMI Marine. They're eleven four
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All right, folks, if you've got a report that you

(08:50):
would like to relate or something that you'd like to
share with us about turkey hunting or fishing. Perhaps if
you've been fortunate enough to be all to do some fishing,
we'd be glad to hear from you tonight. The numbers
five O two five seven one eighty four eighty four
or eight hundred four four four eighty four eighty four. Scott,

(09:14):
I'm gonna run through these lake levels here real quick,
because I think that's going to help provide some perspectives
on it. And as we do that, we'll talk about
some of the problems we're aware of. Then when we'll
come back we'll break we'll talk some more about what
those conditions mean and that kind of thing. But starting out, Scott,

(09:37):
I think we need to talk about the fact that,
thank goodness, it's been cold in addition to be in
high water, because had all this occurred with the fish
up doing normal stuff, it would have been a total
wipe out blow out for sure. That's a certainty, and

(09:58):
that's something I think everybody needs to remember. And that's
gonna course spill over into what we're gonna tell folks
about what we think is coming. But what I'm getting
at is, you know, we're tapping at the door of
the end of the month, here or at the latter
part of the month. Let me put that way, and

(10:19):
conditions are horrible, I mean, any other way to describe it,
So give it that. Let me go through these lake
levels to give people an idea on these levels. First,
I'm gonna give the summer pool because that's what most
people are most familiar with. And obviously some of these
lakes don't normally come up till and first week of May.

(10:42):
But still I had to pick some standard, and it
seemed to me to be summer pool as the one
most people could relate to. These late levels I'm giving
here first are from the Army Corps Engineers as up today.
Barn Rull is five point fifty two. It's at five

(11:03):
eighty five. I'm whopping thirty three feet over summer pool
Green Summer six seventy five. It's at seven o three.
That's twenty eight feet over summer pool. Noel Lynn, as
you're talking about a blowout summer pool there is five
point fifteen. It's at five point fifty five. That ladies

(11:26):
and gentlemen is forty feet over summer pool Rough summer
pools four ninety it's at five twenty four, which is
thirty four feet over, and I'm around that out with
Taylorsville summer pool five forty seven, it's at five eighty again,
a thirty four foot variants over summer pool. In Indiana,

(11:51):
Monroe summer pool is five thirty eight. It's at five
point fifty one. That's fourteen foot over, and the folks
up there at Monroe ro Oh have continually told me
in the last week or so, this is the highest
they can ever remember seeing that. Lake Patoka summers five
thirty six it's a five point forty three, which is

(12:12):
seven feet over pool. I'm around it out Scott with
the one that you and I fished so much, and
that you were very familiar with what's going on now.
Kentucky and Barkley are both at three sixty two summer
pool there's three fifty nine, so they're the ones closest

(12:34):
to what might be considered somewhat normal this time of year.
And again I gave the summer pool figures to give
people an idea of just how high these lakes really are,
because if I talked about winter pool level was I
don't even know I could get my head around it.
But several things we need to talk about here. Obviously

(12:59):
one of them, Scott is danger at these lakes. The
amount of debris in the lakes, and I know Berkley
is really dangerous right now. What are you hearing from
folks around the region on.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
That The waters that I've been in on and around
the turbulence of the water, the velocity of the flow
at the water many of the dams and spilled ways
has been just unbelievable until you see it and hear
it with your own eyes. A lot of credit to

(13:32):
the men and women from years ago that engineered and
put a lot of these structures in place, because the
amount of water load that these areas have had have
proven that they were engineered well. We could have really
had some major disasters. The debris in the water are
definitely something that you've got to take into consideration, not

(13:56):
just of what's floating up top, but so if you
get out and on these waters, there's going to be
a lot of underwater structure debris that can not just
bend a prop or sheer pin. We're talking about sinking
a boat and possibly having a fatality on the water.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
At all times, you.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
Know, life vests should be utilized and when you think
about all the topics we're talking about tonight, Folks just
don't use water to access areas to fish. I mean,
turkey season is in, I know, folks are still utilizing
a lot of aluminum boats, especially to get to and
from these places. Just overall, you need to make sure

(14:43):
that you're utilizing your boat at a lower speed than normal.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Everybody's got a life vest on.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
And if you don't need to be out on the water,
you know, don't be out on the water until you've
actually been there, seen it with your own eyes. And
don't just pull the boat down to the lake think
that the boat ramp's going to be there. Because a
lot of these places Jim are flooded up and above
even where the parking area is where your your automobile

(15:09):
and your trailer would go. It's not just a little
bit of an inconvenience, it's a complete and total, truly
wash out on people's plans.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
And a lot of these folks that are.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Trying to get to and from these lakes are going
to find themselves getting many detours as well to where
they may not even be able to access the lakes
on the normal routes that they're used to traveling from
home exactly.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
That's a great point. I'm gonna start into what we're
gonna talk about at Let's here in just a few minutes,
but so many folks have been calling me, gosh, well,
what are the white bass gonna do? What did the
white bass do? What are the croppie doing? What can
we expect? We're going to get into that in depth

(15:54):
and talk about it a bit. But the thing I
want to go back to, and as the theme tonight,
is don't despair because these fish are going to try
to spawn. And is it unusual conditions? Oh yes, indeed.
But I have lived through several of these types of

(16:15):
floods in my lifetime, none quite as drastic as this.
But the silver lining on this one is because of
the cool temperatures, the fish weren't really wrapped up. The
only exception of that, it Scott, in my mind, would
be the white bass run because the males were moving
up just before this hit. You know, we had temperatures

(16:37):
in the upper fifties most of the rivers and tributaries,
and they those males were staging, but the females were
not there. And there is no way on God's green earth.
Those females are, by instinct, are going to drop eggs
in this kind of conditions, And.

Speaker 4 (16:56):
Yeah, yeah, is that we're going to help people catch fish.
There's going to be tremendous opportunity to catch fish. And
we're both going to share a difference of opinion and
similar opinions on how and what this could mean for
the spawn and what we would like to see, because

(17:18):
even though there's just a few miles difference between us
and Northern Kentucky and Western Kentucky, there is a substantial
difference in the amount of water in the depths of
those floodwaters and how some of this back water and
headwater has impacted the areas in such a unique way.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
No doubt about it. I know that the folks that
I've talked to that have tried to fish, it's been
pretty much a nightmare. Much of that has revolved around
all this wooded debris that's up along the banks, and
that'll change when they start drawing these lakes down. But

(17:57):
gos these perspectives. Twenty eight foot over four over, thirty
three over thirty four foot over that's a long way
back down to level. And if you think about this
for a minute. Let's say they drew it a foot
and a half a day, you're looking at thirty days
or more. There's the perspective I want everybody to have

(18:17):
in the back of their mind as we're talking going forward.
All right, folks, got to go to break here. This
break is presented by mass Old Properties part Realty. Got
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at mop hrt realty dot com. Folks, as week continue

(18:41):
on here, I want to remind you if you have
an up to date report or any comments about what
we're talking about tonight. Observations as you've seen the numbers
are five oh two five seven one eighty four eighty
four or eight hundred four four four eighty four four
scott up. Before the break there, we gave folks a

(19:04):
run down on these levels and what was going on.
And I want to return to this theme because you
and I both share this opinion about these air temperatures
are the silver lining, and what I mean by that
is it has held lake temperatures down where fish weren't

(19:26):
inclined to spawn even if conditions were somewhat normal. In
other words, we're behind on water temperatures. The only lakes
that are in the sixties, and that's low sixties at
that is Kentucky Lake and Lake Berkley. But we all
know that fish needs several things to have a successful spawn.

(19:47):
A they need stable water. Well, we sure don't have
that right now. B they need the correct water temperature
because without temperature, their eggs won't hatch properly. And C
it's tied somewhat to the amount of daylight. In other words,
as you know the season progresses, days get longer. That's
what fish respond to, and all three of those things

(20:12):
have been jumbled. So what I'm getting at here is
a lot of folks are saying, oh, we've missed the spawn.
What are we going to do with You know, well,
these fish are still going to spawn and Scott. Your
perspectives and mind revolve around every living thing is driven

(20:33):
to recreate everything. You know, a flower, a tree, a crappie,
a bass, a deer, doesn't matter what you're talking about.
When it's time to breed, they're going to try to reproduce.
But there have to be certain conditions. On average, this
is especially true with fish in particular, that they have

(20:55):
to have and they have not had them. So moving forward,
here's what I'm getting at Kentucky Lake of all the
lakes around, and we're gonna talk about farm ponds incidentally,
because there's a silver landing by Kentucky and Barkley is
going to be the first ones out of the gate
on a real hard spawning effort. And reason I'm bringing

(21:18):
that up where we're sitting today, full moon, Okay, the
temperatures there, it's gonna get even better than the dark moon,
which is right around the corner, which is the twenty
seventh of April, is not that far away, and there's
plenty of time for those fish, hopefully if that water
gets stable, for them to come up in a rush.

(21:40):
So my prediction on Crappie is if you can go west,
go west, Scott.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
We have.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
Such a hard hand to play with what we've been
given in the fish due to here's why. The most
important thing about all of this, no matter if we're
looking at Indiana or we're looking at Kentucky and parts
of Tennessee, is it's going to be how fast we
lose this water we have our spawn. That's gonna happen

(22:17):
right now because of the amount of daylight, because of
the temperatures and how they're going to be increasing, and
we've got the water levels that we do, whether we
like it or not, now there is tremendous opportunity to
fish right now, and a lot of fish actually have
better habitat to be in right now because instead of

(22:38):
it just being a mud bank, now we've got water
all the way up into wooded structure and lots of
habitat form that they can capitalize on. We're where we're
feeling fearful and I'm very fearful of, is that these
fish are going to come up quickly, which tends to
happen a lot anyways.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
During spawn.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
It it's like it all happens all at once because
it's like everything that the air temperature, the amount of rain,
the cloud cover, whatever. But hopefully these fish will spawn
and get up into a depth of water that we
won't lose the eggs. That's what's important. The fish are

(23:20):
gonna be in the buck brush, They're gonna be in
these timber stick ups, They're gonna be in these areas
where the mud or the bottom of what they need
for their spawning bed meets their needs. What we need
to make sure of is that we don't deplete.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
That water from them.

Speaker 4 (23:38):
And unfortunately, a lot of times how water is controlled
at gates and how water levels are controlled with flooding,
the priority is not given to the fish. It's given
to civilization of mankind. So your comment about if we
draw down a foot and a half per day, how
long will that actually take?

Speaker 3 (23:59):
That's very relevant to this because a lot of folks.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
Really don't know how this water is going to dissipate
in certain areas when and I want to talk to
this and how important it is. There's a lot of
experts that thought that a lot of these rivers were
going to crest four and five days ago that just
recently crested in the last twenty four hours. So there's

(24:23):
some unknown factors there.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Even when we.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
Do all the math and we have all the calculations
and we talk with all the engineers, there are some
things that Mother Nature controls on our own as well.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
And these fish are going to be the same way.

Speaker 4 (24:36):
And I hope that the way that their program is
different than the AI movement in which we have in
the American society right now. But I hope mother Nature
gives them the intuition and the ability to get through
these next two to three weeks which are extremely critical,
especially to our bass and crappy. And of course we're

(24:59):
right on the into that blue gill spawn that they
can get through it and we have.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
A healthy population.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
And this is all about regeneration, Jim. It's about longevity
of a species for a long period of time, and
this spawn impacts several years of quality fishing, not just
fishing this spring.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
That's no doubt, no doubt. What are the things that
I've been rolling and turning into my mind because as
you know, Stott, now the listeners know, I'm very attuned
to moon phases because on all things being equal situations,
they have tremendous impact on fish spawn. Well, this full

(25:40):
moon right here, blow it out. You know, they're just
not going to do it now. Again, I'm sure there's
crappy going to come to the banks at Kentucky and Berkley.
Those are the two exceptions. Why, because they're within four
feet a pull and they got sixty one degree water today.
But moving forward towards that dark moon on the twenty

(26:03):
seventh of April, these next two weeks to your points.
Guid are so critical on how they do this drawdown
these fish. In my opinion, you are gonna hold their cards.
They don't really have much choice because everything is so
crazy right now. And there's been a lots and lots

(26:23):
of years where I've had seen late spongs. I can
give you a good example Coach Revmond, who a lot
of folks recognize the high school football championship coach for
many years. Bobby and I were talking about the years
we've seen something, and I'm gonna bring this up, and
I'm gonna stretch my neck a little bit, but I'm

(26:43):
willing to do it because I think we're gonna see this.
This is one of those weird years where you're gonna
see bass, bluegill and croppie spawning at the same time.
And I don't mean in a wave at the same time,
but what I'm saying is you're going to see spawning
activity by those three species at some point this spring

(27:07):
going forward. I just about guarantee it. Every crazy flooded
year that I've seen this is what happens. Now, how
will it happened? That's what I can't get my head around,
because again, when you're talking about on an average at
these late thirty up to forty feet a drop that's

(27:28):
necessary to get stable water. I'm kind of hoping the
core or TVA is able to hold things steady. But
they're fighting so much water and they got to do
what they got to do. And we all get that,
you know, as you said, it's about protecting human life.
But it's just a very very unusual circumstance because when

(27:54):
it's occurring, you know, normally we be at peak crappie
spawn right now. We all realize that, and it's, uh,
in my opinion, it's gonna be a couple of weeks
off at the least, at the least, you know, at
Kentucky late normally late April, first of May, you've got
some bluegill ready or starting to spawn. Bass is starting

(28:18):
to move up in a strong pre spawn, starting to
look for places to nest. You know, May is not
that far away, is what I'm getting at. And so
in that regard, there's just a lot a lot of
things to think about here, and they're a little bit
perplex I'm gonna go to break here. Coming back from break, Scott,

(28:39):
let's talk a little bit about some ways to still
catch fish regardless of whether the spawn's occurring or not,
because high water does offer some pretty unique fishing opportunities
if you can get on the water. So I want
to give it that caveat all right, folks got to
go to break It's presented by SMI Marine. Go see them.

(29:00):
Take great care of your boat. Remember you never get
soaked by my friends at SMI. All right, folks, we
were talking there about these conditions, Scott, let's talk about
how folks can deal with them. And again I'm not
encouraging everybody to think they go out and launch their
boat tomorrow. We're gonna have to see some of this

(29:21):
settle down still. But I mentioned it earlier. Go west,
young Man, Kentucky and Barkley are getting down to where
they're going to be very manageable, and I think with
that temperature climbing into the sixty degree range, you're going
to see some really good fishing opportunity there. Scott, talk
about those lakes in particular here for a minute, because

(29:44):
that's home turf for you.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
Well, it really depends too on whether or not you're
going to be at the north or the south end
of the lakes.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
What's really special about those lakes is that, especially when
you get to the LBL side, there's so much undisturbed
habitat that when the water gets up, there's a tremendous
amount of.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Areas to fish there.

Speaker 4 (30:13):
But the tricky part of it all is going to
be to watch the water clarity. I think too that
Barkley and Kentucky Lake, off of your numbers that you
have been providing, I think that that is somewhat fair
when you're looking at the at the main lake as
far as that number, but I think that those numbers

(30:35):
are not given a true fact of how bad they're
actually flooded. Jim, and and here's why those lakes are
dammed up, and they are a natural river channel, and
the amount of flooding that has taken place and how
far that flooding goes up into the back of the
bays is really where fishing is going to have to

(30:58):
be capitalized.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
On what I'm getting at.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
There is a lot of those shallow water boat ramps,
and a lot of those ramps that are through the
trace that you can access. You will not have accessibility
to those. You will have to be very particular about
what ramps in what areas you can put on the launch,

(31:21):
because you've got to have a place to park after
you launch your boat. But there's some secrets to that
as well.

Speaker 3 (31:29):
What a lot of folks.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
Are going to have to do is once they get
a boat losted on Barkley, Kentucky Lake and they get
in and onto the water, is utilize the back of
these coves because your water temperatures are going to be
up naturally, because that's where the shallower water is going
to be. Your clarity most of the time is going
to be best in those coves that aren't absolutely being

(31:53):
bombarded with spring and creek fed water. So that's important
to look at how the water flow is coming in,
and then most importantly, start looking at how this sun
is setting and rising to the point of these fish
have kind of been pushed out of natural areas. So

(32:14):
when you get into two or three degrees difference of
water temperature this time of year, where there's goodwoody structure
and there's proper habitat there, that's where these fish are
gonna go to, and they'll go to these areas in
the masses. And so when you're fishing, if you're not catching.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
Fish, it's important to keep moving.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
It's not the time of year to go drop an
anchor and sit there for thirty minutes and see.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Whether or not they're biting.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
It's more important to be moving with that trolling motor
and be searching all of this visual structure that.

Speaker 3 (32:45):
You can make eye contact with.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
And that's what's gonna be key on Barkley, Kentucky Lake
is figuring out what structure you can get in and
around safely and going up in there for not only
your bass and your crappie, but also some of the
readier that are going to start showing some early signs
of getting ready to spawn here in the next week
to ten days.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Absolutely, and again that next moon face coming, which will
be the dark moon on the twenty seventh, is going
to be I think a big target date for those
two lakes. Like you're saying, they're not really prying by
any means yet, but hopefully the best is yet to come.
Something about this theme that I think we need to

(33:29):
repeat Sky as we move through this is how important
it is to realize the fish are not spawning but
their feed and they know how to acclimate to these
conditions a lot people better than people think point being
backwater areas have a lot of food in all kind

(33:51):
of you know, earthworms, the men is move up, there's
all kinds of things that go on with this, and
so what you need to do is redirect your thinking to, Okay,
if they're not smaller, if they're not in there, is
that I normally fat them this timing year? What am
I gonna do here? And obviously it's the kind of
spot you're talking about. I think you gave a great

(34:13):
rundown there. Give folks some tips on real quick here
what baits you think would be best?

Speaker 4 (34:20):
Yeah, I'm gonna give them a tip to on a
species we've not talked about, and that's gonna be these
catfish that are up and around these areas. The amount
of feeding and forging that these catfish will do. It's
just hard to beat live bait in these conditions.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
If people are just.

Speaker 4 (34:37):
Going to catch fish, and you're gonna want to fish
these wooden structures, whether that's dead timber, buck brush or
this standing live timber, it's important to go in there.
And a lot of times it's even best to start
fishing it with a cork or a bobber personally, because
you don't know really what's underneath it. And if you
can keep your hook and your bait out of any

(35:00):
type of debris, of course you're not getting broke off,
and you're not putting yourself in harm's way of not
only just disturbing to fish, but also tearing up your
boat getting in and around a lot of these places.

Speaker 3 (35:10):
This is a this is an idea of time.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
For folks that have an illumin a boat to get
in there and kind of beat the guys that are
fishing with fiberglass boats, because you're going to be in
and out of vegetation that typically a fiberglass boat owner
does not want to be in. You're going to be
weaving in and out of bushes of that buck brush.
You're going to be using a lot of types of

(35:33):
baits to where I like to utilize a spinner, I
like to utilize something a little bit higher in color,
and I like to utilize something a little more natural
with some type of fur hair on it, even though
it's a little bit later into the year than what
those baits typically do real well in and what you're
trying to do is just basically present something to a

(35:54):
fish that is an insect or some type of invertebrae
that's trying to escape escape those flooded waters.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
Yes, sir, those are all great tips, and I hope
folks can capitalize on it because flipping pitching, you know,
that comes into play in this type of condition. Those
fish will get up in those backwater areas you're talking about,
especially if they got better color conditions. There'll be a
lot of species up there. And I'm glad you mentioned

(36:21):
the catfish because that's definitely true in their case in
a big way. All Right, folks, gotta go to break here.
This breaking presented by Most Seal Properties, part Realty. Paul
Thomas is the broker there. He's a hunter, he's a fisherman.
He knows the type of properties you're after it. He's
got a lot of them for sale it to this
moment as we speak, so check them out at mop

(36:44):
H A R T realt dot com. All right, folks,
we're going to continue our discussion about the water and
its effects on fishing and Scott During break, I had
one of them followers talk to me about something that
we do definitely need to talk about, and then we're
going to talk about how to capitalize on the backside,

(37:07):
but he had gone out to his farm pond and
he had tractor ruts in the area there along the
dam and whatnot, and he quickly noticed a lot of
young dead bluegill and then started finding out in the
little spillway below there that hundreds and hundreds of bluegill

(37:28):
washed out, which raises two points of concern for a
lot of our listeners who own lakes and ponds. That is,
they need to check things out because no doubt with
this record flooding and when it's occurred, there's a lot
of fish probably spilled out number one, number two, many ponds.

(37:51):
I've got several friends mind that contacted me about this
this week had overflow out of creeks and rivers into
their ponds, which I can promise you is going to
create problems because everything from karp to all kind of
species of catfish and other fish get in there. When
that happens, it's just unfortunate. And a lot of ponds

(38:13):
turned into backwater wash for like better way to say it.
I mean, uh, this is again very unusual, but these
are things that folks need to check and think about
because of what's happened here.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
Yeah, and you know, there's gonna be some opportunities to
you know, hate that that gentleman lost his fish. It
is going to be important for folks to maybe relook
or revisit, you know, their stocking schedule.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
And their program. But but there's some.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
Fish species too that we can maybe bring some fatality
to that we don't want. And that's going to be
the amount of bowfishing opportunities and a lot of these
flooded areas once this water starts to leave out, with
the amount of you know water that's there, it even

(39:09):
allows people the opportunity to do a lot of boat
fishing without even the use of a boat, where they
can actually just go in and walk the water's edge.
Of course, and they need to do that in a
safe manner and not rut up any of the landowners
fields or the public areas in which.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
They're going to to access this. But so many fish
have been flushed.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
Out the pipes and down the hatch, you could say,
and so many fish are going to be trapped inside
the hatch because a lot of fish are going to
find a one way in and no way out scenario.
And that's going to be both for our invasive species
and our game species that we desire so much.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Yes, sir, there's no doubt about that. While we're on
the subject of farm ponds, however, some of them are
getting in better shape. Some of them are, you know,
coming through this and pretty good fashion. And that's something
near we both of our hearts. Let's talk about that
for a minute, because because they're ready, the bluegill and
them are ready, the pond crappy or trying to spawn,

(40:08):
and we'll really rev up. Let's talk about that a
little bit well.

Speaker 4 (40:12):
Farm pond fishing, watershed fishing in general has just in
my experience, this spring has been a little bit ahead
of schedule and been pretty hot for a long period
of time. Now, this keeps getting better, and it's going
to continue to get better over the next few weeks,
especially with some of those temperatures bumping up into the eighties.

(40:33):
And it's really important that we bring into the factor
of why have these farm ponds been so good to
fish recently? And a lot of it is is because
folks do a whole lot better job now and establishing
and keeping good ground cover and good vegetation in and

(40:55):
around their farm ponds. Farmers are doing a lot better
job of keeping their cattle fenced off from lakes and
ponds on the property. A lot of folks are understanding
the use of different types of vegetation to help slow
that water down. We use a lot of grass waterways,
and overall the clarity in these farm ponds has been

(41:16):
really good. They've picked up really well off of coming
in on you know, a lot of rainfall washing into them.
And we've done a lot better job in engineering and
constructing ponds, I think than what we used to. We
put a little bit more thought into it. It seems
to be versus back in the day where we just

(41:37):
took and damn something up.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
So fishing has been really good there.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
The thing that I would particularly pay attention to is
making sure that you do get out and fish and
you keep some fish, don't just go in there and fish.
I'm starting to see Jim on the farm pond fishing
a lot of the lake that I have access to
that some of these lakes have had pretty good spawns

(42:06):
on crappy and if croppie are not managed right in
a farm pond, they can become overpopulated. So that it's
good not to always do catch and release on a
lot of species that go really good.

Speaker 3 (42:21):
In oil and right next to a side of coast law.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yes, sir, I'm with you on that. Well, what I'm
getting at is the water temperatures, hopefully now will start
to stabilize a little better. And as we move into
that mid sixty range and it stabilizes their pond crappy
in particular, copananas and blue gill and what have you,

(42:47):
won't be too far behind because again the next moon
is the twenty seventh of this month, and by then,
hopefully all this crazy weather will have settled down a
bed in those ten watures will really trawlose fish up
to finish off, because April is the normal month I
mean for the crappie in particular, and then of course

(43:09):
as we transition into May, you've got the blue gilding
and the bass. So it's uh, it's just a very
different spring. It's a good way.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
It's a it's a great time in spring though, that
where a beetlespin or rooster tail, you know, anywhere from
a two inch to a four inch grub. If a
person will take the time to put in one of
these smaller boats or to take and walk the edge
of a lot of these farm ponds.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
It's a multi species catch right now.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
I mean everything's biting. The blue dealer, biting the croppy
or biting. The bass are biting, and these fish are
they're really starting to turn on. And I would say
that the next ten days to two weeks should be
some of the best springtime fishing that we're going to
have because of that little increase of the eighty degree

(44:05):
mark and a lot of our evenings are not getting
down cool. We're gonna hold some fifties and sixties for
our lows, and that's gonna be really important along with
that sunlight coming through. And as this water starts to
deplete off and we have dryer weather. To Jim, this
vegetation is gonna kick in the gear and they're gonna
filter and clear up some of that water clarity for us,

(44:28):
and once again it's back to Mother Nature taking care
of things on our own.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Absolutely Well said, I'm gonna go to break here. Coming
back from break, folks, we're gonna talk turkey because it
is turkey time, Scott said, a fantastic opening weekend, and
we're gonna talk about the conditions, what the birds are
doing in different parts of the state, so stick with us.
We'll be right back after this break. The break is
presented by SMI Marine. They're eleven four Ounder Westport Road,

(44:56):
just off the Snyder. Go see him if you hadn't
already done so. They'll take great care of you. Tell them,
Jimbo said you, and remember you'll never get soaked at SMI.
All right, folks, as most of y'all are where it
is turkey season, this was Kentucky's kick off, and Scott,
you were out in the woods and had very interesting hunts.

(45:17):
I'd like you to share some of the details about
those because there's something to be learned there.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
Well, like most folks that are turkey hunting in the
state of Kentucky that are residents or the non residents
coming in to hunt, we all had to learn our
roads a little bit better than probably what we we
wanted to a lot of twenty minute drives and just
down the road trips turned into cross country marathons. And

(45:46):
that's just part of it. There's so many areas that
low lying areas that had so much flood water that
took a lot of acres out of commission to hunt on,
and it took a lot of acres out of commission
to even get to and I was no different than
a lot of folks on that I had go to
farms that I didn't have a go to spot, because

(46:09):
you know, fourteen foot of water is not going to
produce a great place for you to set up and.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
Yump up a gobbler.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
But I, like most folks, got off work Friday afternoon,
got a few things done to pack and made myself
pretty diverse with not knowing where I was going to
be on opening morning.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
And folks that know me know that that's normally not my.

Speaker 4 (46:36):
Style that close to the start of the season, but
that's what the water did to me. And I needed
to roost some turkeys, and I was fortunate enough the
one good time that coach benefited me was Friday afternoon,
right there at the last ten to fifteen minutes a
daylight had some coach barking and hound and it created

(46:59):
a couple of birds for me, and I was able
to get in early and get set up and utilize
the full moon Saturday morning to really capitalize on the
soft soil and all the leaf litter being damp. It
made it really stealthy for me to get really close
to those turkeys, and I thought I was going to

(47:20):
have the opportunity to kill.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
One of those birds.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
But there was Old Sneaky Charlie, you know, that was
fifty yards over from where I was.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
It never did gobble.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
That Friday evening before, and Old Sneaky decided to pitch
down right in front of me, and his beard swing
to the left, and his beard swung to the right,
and he made about three steps into Opening day of
walking on his three toes and he got to meet
a load from the old twenty gage shotgun and that

(47:54):
was tag number one. It happened really fast, birds gobbled
extremely well. I retrieved my turkey, I admired it, got
it tagged and checked in and sit there and watch
those other two goblers come right down to a range
of the end of my gun barrel. But my first
tag was filled and I didn't have anybody else with me,

(48:16):
and watched two really good gobblers just absolutely destroy and
attack Jake decoy for over an hour and finally just
had to lightly bump those turkeys off. But Opening Day
was really good to a lot of people gym and
it created a lot of questions on why birds were

(48:40):
gobbling maybe in some areas and not others. And then
of course I had a really successful hunt this morning
with filling.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
My second tag. I did not roost birds.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
I ran up to northern Kentucky and was able to
get out early this morning and didn't have really high expectations.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
There was a lot of cloud cover up.

Speaker 4 (49:03):
And around the Littleville area and even had a little
sprinkle right after i'd the harvested my second bird, but
I'd gotten a little overheated decided to take just a minute.
There were some birds that were gobbling on the limb.
They haven't you know, hipped the ground yet, and so
I was moving to get towards them, but decided to

(49:24):
shed that upper base layer and kind of regroup on
how I was going to go and get set up
on those birds. And for whatever reason, God had his
hand in it, I guess.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
And I had a.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
Bird sound off not too far from me seventy seventy
five yards, and I was not in the best spot
to set up on that turkey, but I had to
use the knowledge that I had, and I had to
use the terrain to my advantage and yelped one time,
just real softly on a diaphragm bird gobbled back to me,
and I knew he knew I was there, and from

(50:00):
that point it was going to be a cat and
mouse game. And fortunately he come looking for me. After
he flew off the limb, I yelled just a couple
more times, and he come walking looking at.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Anybody that's turkey.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Hunted long enough knows that sometimes a turkey's head can
be moving through the early morning where it looks like
a iridescence, almost like a peraps blue ribbon kneon sign.
And that's what I seen coming walking right at me and.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
Shot a really good bird, shot.

Speaker 4 (50:29):
A twenty nine pound gobbler with inch and a half spurs,
and that was filling my two Kentucky tags. But I'm
ready to answer any questions and give any advice i
can that you can pick my brain on or how
we can help some other people, because I think the
best of turkey season is yet to come, and I
think that the foliage developing's going to help folks hide

(50:52):
a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (50:53):
And I have.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
Friends that have hunted just down the road for me
and a few counties over, and some have been really
happy with the goblin. And some think that the turkeys
haven't gobbled much at all, So it's turkey season. And
here's why you know it's turkey season. Turkey hunters are
either real happy or real mad, and that's that's just
what turkeys do during turkey season.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Absolutely well, a lot of the guys, to your point,
said they didn't hear much gobblin, especially this morning with
that cloud cover coming in. But almost all my buddies tagged.
And the big thing I think we need to impart
is there's so much breeding activity going forward again. Hen

(51:36):
turkeys don't like a gobler on their back and pulling
rain or driving wind, and we've had plenty of that
early on. So as we moved forward, I think there's
gonna be hens with these birds, or they'll be with
the hens. Maybe I said that backwards going forward for
a bit. So, yes, the best is yet to come,

(51:57):
and there's plenty of plenty of good opportunity. You mentioned
that foliage is really going to bust as soon as
it warms again.

Speaker 4 (52:05):
Yeah, and a lot of people don't realize that. As
the birds fight and they go through their breeding, of
course that's going to change their behavior. But folks got
to remember as of right now, we've killed eleven thousand
birds into the Kentucky spring turkey season this year already.
Of course, that's including the youth numbers, which were lower

(52:27):
than average because of some of the weathers that come up.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
But the dynamics in the social pecking.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
Order changes in these turkeys, not just day by day
and week by week. It can change in a matter
of just a few minutes. It just takes a couple
of birds getting in a fight, or for one bird
to be shot out that's part of a flock, and
the next thing, you know, a more dominant bird or
a less dominant bird kind of starts taking over. And
food sources are changing by the day as this weather changes,

(52:57):
as vegetation changes, and of course culture practices are going
to be pushing birds in and out of different fields
and moving birds around, and of course hunters are gonna
be bumping birds.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
So if folks had a rough start.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
To the opener, uh, don't don't let it keep you
down and keep your chin high, because the best spurred
birds and some of the best hunting as far as
how birds react to a call do tend to happen
as hunting pressure dies down a little bit and the
breeding activity gets a little bit more further involved into

(53:32):
the spring.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Yes, sir, you mentioned something to me before we went
on the air, and I think it's important. Field hot
and generally ought to be exceptional because the folks hadn't
sprayed much or done much chilling because of these crazy
weather conditions, and that of course makes those fields a
little more condition for the birds to feed and strut
at them.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
Yeah, and there's a lot of vegetation that's gonna have
a lot of insect infestation, and those birds will capitalize
on it as soon as those insects are there, Yes, sir.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
No doubt about it. All right, folks got to go
to break here. This break is presented by Massel Properties
Heart Realty. Checking out all their listings at mop h
Rtrealty dot com. God, I know U these turkey hunters
out here, A lot of them really enjoy another aspect
to the sport, or a sidebar to the sport, I

(54:27):
guess I should say, and that is hunting the morell mushrooms.
And with all this rain that we've had, this may
be a pretty unique mushroom year. I know you did
a little scaring around share with what you're seeing out
there and what you think we're gonna find it.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
It's gonna be a phenomenal year for morel's if we
can keep this heat coming that's supposed to be coming,
and it looks like it is. What folks need to
do is really try to get in where those ash
and elm trees are, where they fallen, where at some
point in time you know dirt has been disturbed.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
You know, check your higher ground.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
Really start understanding your different facings on your slopes as
far as how different vegetation can even control how much
sunlight and ground temperature is being affected there. But morells,
dry land fish, hickory chickens, no matter how you cook
them or what you call them, they're just good, you know.

(55:27):
I mean, it creates a lot of times where a
lot of turkey hunters are out walking around and even
just folks that just hunt morels that aren't even partaking
and hunting.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
You know, you'll sometimes.

Speaker 4 (55:40):
You'll walk through the woods looking right down at your
feet and not see deer.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
In front of you or a strutting turkey.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
So it's been known to actually be negative to a
turkey hunter like myself, Jim, to always be looking down
because every once in a while you'll hear a putt
or spook some turkeys cause you're worried about looking down
for those little moreles. But man, it sure is nice.
I would definitely have a way to put them in

(56:08):
your turkey vest or a sack. It's you know, a
lot of guys will and guals will use a bread
sack or some type of plastic sack to put over
a turkey's head if they've got a long pack out
and they don't want to get you know, the aftermath
from the shot on them as.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
Far as blood. But always try to keep.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
You an old potato sack or something, because you know,
the good thing about these morales in the year that
we should be having is once you start finding one
or two, you're normally down on your hands and knees
or scanning an area pretty well. And I've been in
a mushroom patch many times looking for hours not to
find any I've been there too where within five minutes

(56:49):
it's created me staying there for hours getting them all picks.
So it's just you know, capitalize on it. Realize your
blacks are probably gonna pop first. Then you'll get in
more to your like white catacking Morrell mushrooms there. But
they all eat great, you know, and so folks want
a good way to fix them.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
There's not a bad way to do it.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
You can put them in some butter and saltam and
a skillet, or fry them up, but you know, cut
them jokers in half of them, soaking some salt water
and refrigerator and enjoy and don't ever be afraid to
freeze those things.

Speaker 3 (57:22):
You can put morells up.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
A lot of people don't know this, and there's different
ways in what you can do it, but there's nothing
wrong at all with just taking and making sure they're
good and dry, cutting half lamb out and you can
look at all the fancy ways to do it, but
the basic way that I do it is I just
use a zip lock freezer bag or a gladlocked freezer bag,

(57:44):
and I make sure those are really dry. Some people
will pre flour theres and batter them. I don't like
doing that, and lamb down flat. Don't stack anything hard
on top of them. And you can be in Morel's
year around as far as part of your diet, and
they taste. It is good of cooking them after they've
been frozen is when you get them freshed.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
You, Scott, you touched on something I'd like you to
expand your thoughts on a little bit, and that was
the difference in the face slopes in the woods where
you're more likely to find a lot of mushrooms instead
of just a few. A lot of folks don't realize
how that sunlight and different slopes get produced better. Yeah,

(58:29):
you know, it's over the years. There's a lot of
folks that think, you know, a western facing or east
slope whatever is is really important to folks on it,
and it is. I think what's more important to focus
on is how the vegetation is in the area it
For whatever reason, air, temperature, sunlight, all of these things

(58:53):
tend to really affect how trees and vegetation leaves out.
And I think if folks will start paying attention when
they're hunting for morel mushrooms. If you're walking through a
woods that is completely bare and there's not been any
leafing out, you're not seeing any type of new emergence
from your ferns, and you're not seeing where moss is

(59:17):
kind of starting to green up from that sunlight.

Speaker 3 (59:21):
You're intersection of.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
Woods that you don't need to really be in like
it needs to look like spring where you're at. It
doesn't need to look like a bunch of winter leaf litter.
And start realizing that when that sun rises in the east,
you know certain slopes are going to be able to
get sunlight, of course, based on how they're facing, but
more importantly this time of year, the type of vegetation

(59:44):
that's in the area and how the sunlight can hit
those slopes. A lot of times you'll find your mushrooms
right off the side of the ridge, not directly on
top of the ridge. And don't don't ever overlook just
checking around a big patch of may apples. If folks
don't know what may apples are, look it up, Google
search it and anywhere that you're starting to find may apples,

(01:00:07):
you can really start realizing that that's where some of
your better vegetation has started to emerge. And get active
in the spring and start searching and painting those hillsides
that are getting some sunlight but still shadowed, and you'll
start finding some little golden nuggets.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Yes, sir, some of the other things that we probably
need to pass along to folks here while we're talking
about all this rain and what it's done, and that
is erosion, sinkholes, etc. This is gonna be a problem.
Let's talk about that a little bit as well.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
It's a bad problem right now because a lot of
guys and gals are hitting the woods and they're trying
to keep their headlights turned off, and some folks are
getting out and starting to clean up a lot of
winter wood to breeze limbs and stuff on down. Listen,
this is what has happened. The weather man's not going
to tell you about this. These creeks have had a

(01:01:06):
lot of undercutting. These creeks have had a lot of
flash flooding. A lot of folks are going to realize
a lot of their traditional creek crossings on their farms
are not crossable.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
With their vehicle or their ATV.

Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
We have had a tremendous amount of soil erosion. We've
had a lot of rock shift, we have a lot
of sink holes. And before folks get out, and especially
these fields that only get bushtogged maybe once every other
year or once a year, it's going to be really
important to walk your farm. No one wants to see

(01:01:39):
anybody get hurt in an ATV accident or to have
some type of accident with farm implements and equipment. Sinkholes
are just part of the areas and which we live
in in the southern Indiana Kentucky area. And a lot
of these sinkholes that let's just say were traditionally basketball

(01:02:00):
eyes in my lifetime, that I've known for years just
by being out in the field scouting turkeys, hunting mushrooms,
and working gym. A lot of these are the size
of a car hood or if not bigger, and a
lot of this is gonna really occur, especially you know,
the Jefferson, Oldham Shelby, Henry County area into Spencer County.

(01:02:21):
Those are the areas that I've seen a tremendous amount
of sinco activity increase. And in western Kentucky as far
as the creeks, especially on the Sandstone creeks that are
cutting through a lot of these farms, I'm seeing a
lot of creeks gym that were just traditionally say three
or four.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Foot in depth, whether they had water in them or not, and.

Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
Let's say three or four or five foot and with
a lot of these are now six to twelve foot wide,
and they've added at least another eight to twelve fourteen
inches in depth we've had. We've had a lot of
carry over. It makes for great turkey skelting. There's a
lot of sand and silk, there's a lot of soft soil,

(01:03:02):
a lot of places where deer hunters can get out
and see these deer trails and where they're beat down.
But whether folks are out replenishing their mineral turkey hunting,
hunting mushrooms, going fishing, just be careful folks that are
riding horseback through some different country, and a lot of
that's done by a lot of our listeners. Uh, just

(01:03:22):
be careful with the with the animals, and and don't
don't think twice about taking safety into the hand because
a lot of these, a lot of these hoes, Jim,
aren't just you know, make you look like a fool walking.
I mean, a lot of these are gonna break a leg,
spring an ankle, you know. And a lot of our
older folks that are listeners, you know, we all know

(01:03:43):
what can happen to an elder if they break a
hip and and and much worse if they don't have
self service or anybody with them to get you know,
some type of first aid and response pretty quickly.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Absolutely before I go to break very quickly. You and
I've been discussing this deer hitting mineral licks like crazy.
A lot of licks that we're on the margin to
begin with have been wiped out by all this raid.
So folks, this is an important time to be on
top of that and repleash and check them out because

(01:04:15):
this amount of rainfall, it's highly unusual.

Speaker 4 (01:04:20):
Yeah, and before we hit that braken, I want to
advocate for something else too. This spring, the way that
things have been, I would advocate to do a more
traditional hard block like a trophy rock. And for folks
that don't understand those basic trace mineral blocks that come
in fifty pounds or trace mineral blocks with stelinium, I

(01:04:41):
know that those were designated specifically for livestock.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
But that mineral right now, with the way that the.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
Winds, the rain and the winds and everything the fronts
have been coming through, try to get your mineral up
on a stump, and if you have to, don't be
a friend aid to frame something up and have your
mineral up and off the ground. Because these deer are
going to mineral spots. A lot of them are going

(01:05:10):
to mental spots gym that are underneath the water, so
there is no mineral at all. And like you said,
a lot of the mineral sites that were established were
washed out. So don't ever be afraid to adapt to
what Mother Nature's throwing us. That hard mineral block will
definitely have its advantages over loose mineral this time of year.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Yes, certain, no doubt about that. All right, folks, gonna
hit the brake. The break is something about SMI Marine.
They'll do any type of troubleshooting on your boat that
can help you out with your selectional electronics. And remember
you never get soaked by my friends at SMI Scott.
Let's talk a little bit here about the effects this

(01:05:49):
is gonna have on small game and some of the critters.
My biggest concern here is rabbits. You know, rabbits were
in the middle of their young cycle and there's very
few places where mama rabbit could keep a young one

(01:06:11):
a dry and be warm, especially with this crazy stuff
that lasted for days on end. But in the flooded
areas down in your part, it's a wipeout. I mean
I think it is.

Speaker 4 (01:06:26):
Yeah, it is, and it you know, and the thing
is we've found that we've we've backed ourselves into a
corner with time.

Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
Here towards the end of the.

Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
Show, but you know it, where we're at shoe timing is,
I think is where a lot of wildlife is at.

Speaker 3 (01:06:37):
And and here's what I'm afraid of. This is where
we started the show.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
Talking about what's going on with the water and epic flooding.
I think a lot of wildlife is.

Speaker 3 (01:06:48):
On an island right now.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:06:51):
And And that thinking is not assumption. That thinking is
from what I've seen being out in the field. Where
where I'm concerned is I'm afraid that these critters, rabbits,
dear turkey. I feel like they're going to possibly deplete
their food source to where they're going to lead this

(01:07:11):
island structure, this dry land that they're on. And we
all know these critters can swim and they can get
get to point A to point B, but the distance
from point A to point B is so dramatic that
I'm truly concerned for the first.

Speaker 3 (01:07:29):
Time in my life of wildlife drownding.

Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
From trying to escape a bad situation and getting into
an even worse situation.

Speaker 3 (01:07:38):
Rabbit, squirrels, all of.

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
These things and to pay you a compliment and to
to look at where your mind is and the knowledge
and stuff. You know, I never gave any food for
thought to you know, how long are these squirrels gonna be,
you know, up in the top of a tree, and
how many canopies are they going to have to go
across until they can get dry land? Because you know,

(01:08:02):
unfortunately they can cover them their territory and they can
eat buds and they can do lots of things and
rabbits the same way.

Speaker 3 (01:08:10):
They can move on. But where does it eventually, you know,
where does the buck stop here with a predator? Where
does the buck stop here with life? Because they just don't.

Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
Have a golden X to land on. And when we
look at what's happening, it is the nesting that's being impacted.

Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
It's the predators.

Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
The amount of hawks and bald eagles that have been
capitalizing on this.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
The bald eagle activity.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Jim in the last week has been tremendous and they're
out hunting. I mean they're capitalizing on a very abundant
food source. You know, animals only have certain routes to go.
A lot of these bobcats and coats and different things
have adapted to that because that's what they do. They're
adaptive animals, and they're they're feasting on the critters that

(01:08:59):
we want. And when it comes to these rabbits and
and these squirrels, I don't think folks can can say
enough thought and prayer uh to the big man upstairs
to our small game critters, because they're in a very
important time period too. It's just not the turkeys and

(01:09:19):
the fish that are going through the breeding cycle and
and the reproduction process.

Speaker 3 (01:09:25):
It's it's our squirrels and our rabbits.

Speaker 4 (01:09:27):
And that's that's really what started all of us in
this this habit and this this world of hunting that
we all know so well.

Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
Yeah, and the thing is, squirrels got young down and
the rabbits head young. Now when I say had with
the rabbits percentage wise out an order to put the
dime on it, but I can tell you it was
not a good situation for those young rabbits period in
the quote. And I mean that doesn't matter if you
were in the floodwaters that you've got down there are

(01:09:57):
up in this part of the state, we had crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:10:01):
Ray And on a quick note, a lot of this
agriculture ground that has flooded because that land has cleared,
the amount of habitat they have with these fentros and
these smaller, you know, pieces of habitat, I mean it,
there's not as many opportunities for them to leave there
and go somewhere better. Jim, I mean, the Riparian zone

(01:10:24):
is what I'm talking about, and it's.

Speaker 3 (01:10:27):
Miles miles long and miles.

Speaker 4 (01:10:30):
Of distance that these critters are going to have to
travel to survive. And the fact of the matter is, Jim,
you know, and I know they're not going to survive that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:37):
They just can't.

Speaker 4 (01:10:38):
It's it's it's that massive, and it's it's that much
of a of a tragic event, not just to the
people who have lost personal properties, but these these critters
that we love so much. They've lost their home too,
and that home is their food or sheltered they're nesting,
and it's it's gone. A lot of these creatures weren't
designed to live in water for multiple weeks at a time,

(01:11:00):
and not an extent like this.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
Yes, sir, well, the good news is they're prolific and
hopefully they'll bounce back, they will breed again. But this
initial wave of young rabbits is the one where I'm
most concerned. The squirrels in those flooded areas, I'm concerned too,
But as you talked about, they can go tree to
tree and eat buds, but only for so long, and

(01:11:26):
so we'll try to keep people on an update on
that situation. But we got to call them as we
see them. And a lot of this stuff is not
a pretty picture right now, and I don't think that's
a surprise to any of us, but we'll we'll get
to it. Mother nature has tremendous recoupative powers and we'll
have to rely on that and see how well it'll partend.

(01:11:49):
Last thing, please be careful. Many of the ramps are closed.
There's a lot of debris in the water. Scott, You
got a closing thought here.

Speaker 3 (01:11:58):
Wear that life, vest and enjoy this time of year.
There's a lot to enjoy it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
There's a lot to harvest, from mushrooms to turkeys to fish,
and good time of year to eat fresh and fill
your freezer.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Yes sir, all right, folks, that's kind of a roundabout
of what's going on. A very unusual spring this year
so far, and we're doing our best to keep you
up today. Please be careful out there. God bless everybody.