This week on Kentucky Afield, we're taking advantage of a fast shooting opportunity that not nearly enough people get out for: crow hunting.

Next, the Salato Wildlife Education Center opens for the season on March the 14th, but animal care's there 365 days a year.

Then, if you'd like to catch a trophy bass this year, these next two months are the time to do it.

It's all next on Kentucky Afield.

Hello and welcome to Kentucky Afield.

I'm your host, Chad Miles.

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

There is a reason there's a crow hunting season here in Kentucky.

It provides a unique hunting opportunity when not a lot of the seasons are in.

And it helps the state manage a bird population that can be damaging.

Tell you what, super early in the morning on a cold February morning out here in Laurel County.

What in the world are we doing today?

Well, we're out here crow hunting this morning.

We'll see if we can get us a few crows.

What a lot of people don't realize is that when you got big numbers of crows, crows can be very destructive.

You guys know what they call a group of crows, right?

A mob?

A mob, I've heard that.

You know what the other name for it is right?

Its a murder.

A murder of crows.

There's a reason why they call them a murder of crows and that's because, man, wherever they go, there's a bunch of damage that sometimes follows so.

They're coming in.

I tell you what, I think we're going to get some shots today.

There█s number one.

Got one down.

There you go.

Nice.

Nice.

Got him.

I mean it's the 4th of July up here.

Nice.

Oh, good shot.

Nice shot.

Well, I'll tell you what.

This is an absolute blast.

You get out, get started early, scout your location, put you some decoys out, put your call out.

Bring a mouth call.

Literally went and cut some bamboo.

Yeah.

Some of these decoys are homemade foam that you just wrapped up and painted.

You don't need a big high dollar Fox Pro like we have here.

Mouth calls, turkey locator calls works just as good as anything.

You█ve seen today, like they've been working just fine.

Oh, yeah.

You can't tell on you or myself but hearing protection is obviously a good idea.

Jason's got his hearing protection on out there too, so.

Yeah.

You█re going to be shooting a whole lot.

If you think, Well, you're coming out here and shooting all these birds, there's not a real good reason for it.

There is a good reason.

They need to be managed, and- you're over here wearing them out!

And you go out and you see these groups of birds, thousands and thousands of birds that can be rough on farmers.

Oh, i█d say we got one happy soybean farmer out here today.

Oh, yeah.

They can be rough on other animal species.

And you know what?

This is a great wing shooting opportunity, that's for sure.

It█s something, like I said earlier, deer season stops middle of January.

They don't start shedding until the end of February.

It's just something to keep you busy during trapping season.

It's a blast from daylight to dark.

I mean, it's just if you find the right fly away, you do your homework, you scout.

It's just a guaranteed.

It's all-day action.

Right here, guys.

Good shot.

There he goes.

He's coming in the blind with you.

Well, you fellas told me that this is about the most fun you can have in the off season with a shotgun.

You're not joking.

If you want to shoot a lot, crows is the way to go isn█t it?

It█s the way to go.

It█s the cheapest, funnest thing you can possibly do while taking care of a, you know, a nest predator like these are.

And like we talked before, again, they destroy a lot of crop and it's just aggravating all around, especially when you find a big roost like these.

There's a whole lot of things that we do to help manage and maintain nuisance or predatory species, right?

Honestly, you don't have to have a lot.

Like, we've got homemade everything.

Only expensive thing we have is the call.

Well, I tell you what.

Thank you guys for having me down.

It was definitely a learning experience.

If you and your kids have never been to the Salato Wildlife Education Center in Frankfort, you are really missing out.

Salato is a wildlife education center located here in Frankfort, Kentucky.

It was established by the Department of Fish and Wildlife 25 years ago to educate the public about hunting, fishing and outdoor conservation.

Here at the center, we see about 55,000 people annually from Kentucky and across the United States.

This little Wildlife education center is a small zoo setting that has Kentucky native animals only.

It's a place where people can come and see these animals up close in a safe environment and learn more about their natural histories.

What people like about coming here, is any questions that they need to know or inquiring, they're getting informed of and so they leave here with more education concerning the animals.

We care for over 300 animals here at the center.

People can expect to see bear, bobcats, eagle, turtles, frogs, snakes, elk, deer, bison, turkeys.

Just a wide variety of Kentucky native animals.

The center is open from March through November to the public.

But animal care is here 365 days a year, taking care of the animals.

We do training, enrichments, health checks, feeding, cleaning and medication.

These are just some of the things we do on a daily basis.

One of the very first things I do when I come to work each morning is drive around and check on all the animals and make sure everybody's seems healthy.

Make sure all the fences are intact.

Looks like everybody standing up grazing.

Everybody looks good.

All four of them are there.

All the fences look intact.

Check in on the elk.

Everybody looks good.

We'll check on them throughout the day to make sure nobody is limping.

We have several snakes at Salato.

We have venomous and non-venomous.

Our three main venomous snakes we have are the rattlesnake, the cottonmouth and the copperhead.

Typically, about once a month, we try to weigh our venomous snakes.

Working with this rattlesnake, we have to be prepared.

We have to have the right equipment from our boots.

We have hooks to properly handle it.

All right, you█re good.

Alright, hold this.

There's a lot of training involved with handling and dealing with the animals that we work with here and they█re wild animals.

So we have to take caution when we're here working.

What█s our weight?

2022.

2022.

I can remember that.

So we have to put it in a smaller container first, get a weight on the snake, and then we'll move it to the larger container so we have more room to clean.

We changed the mulch, cleaned the glass, add fresh water, and then we return it back to its exhibit.

We prepare diets specific to our animals needs so carnivores get a carnivore diet, and our herbivores and omnivores get either an herbivore diet or a mix.

Let's go wake up a bear.

One of the main attractions we have here is our black bear.

Everyone loves to see him.

We've had him about 22 years.

He weighs 670 lbs.

Good morning bear.

All of the behaviors we train for are for medical purposes from body condition and health checks to more advanced procedures like vaccinations and blood draws.

All of the training is done voluntarily by our animals so that we can keep track of their health without causing any unnecessary stress to them.

After we get him up and moving, we begin our training.

Training usually consist of having him put his paw in a paw shute.

We warm up his paw with a heating pad.

So when it's cold, the heat really helps swell up those veins so they're a little easier to find.

We also part is hair with warm water to make it easier to see.

While he is allowing us to take blood samples and work with his paw.

He gets special snacks that Brad will feed him through the fence.

So he will get some of his favorite treats like lettuce and grapes, and he'll get those only for blood draw trainings.

After blood draw, we go into other trainings.

Mouth.

We█ll check his teeth.

Good.

Up.

Check out his paws and his paw pads.

Good boy.

Sit.

We do a variety of different trainings and it's all for health purposes.

Before we put our bear out, we always go in and clean up his enclosure, put out a little bit of food for him to find.

We use honey, berries and other types of fruit.

We█ll hide it around his enclosure so that it motivates him to forage and find that food on his own.

Get him moving around, gets him exercising.

We've got our alligator snapping turtle now for a couple of years.

We feed him meat, sometimes chicken liver, sometimes fish.

But most of the time he gets some sort of red meat.

So the meat here is thawed out and it seems like it's ready for the turtle.

Sometimes he doesn█t eat immediately, even though it's right on his head.

But give him an hour, an hour and a half, and then hopefully he'll be hungry and ready to eat.

He eats most of it.

The alligator gar, they get some of it too.

So what he don't get, they do.

The gar usually eat fish, but sometimes they'll eat the meat that we give to our turtle.

They're opportunistic and they'll take a meal when they can get it.

We do a back flush on the tanks weekly.

Out with the old water and the fresh water in.

Keeps the water fresh, clean, and it keeps our animals healthy.

So it looks like our turtles already eaten.

There's only one piece left.

We have two bobcats here.

One is a male and one is a female.

Everybody loves the bobcats.

Just like the bears, they█re probably the number one and number two animals that people come here to see.

They are totally opposite.

They have different personalities.

One of them is very playful and is not very food motivated for training.

And the other one is a little bit more standoffish, likes to do his own thing.

But he is very eager to train every day.

Good morning.

This is our female bobcat.

She's about six or seven years old.

She is being playful this morning.

She's ready to get to work.

And this is our male bobcat.

He's about nine years old.

He's getting ready to get to work too.

Scale.

Just getting a weight on our female bobcat here.

They're trained to get up on the scale.

We weigh them twice a month to keep up with their health.

They're both full grown now, so we like them to maintain their current weight.

Tail.

So we put tail on cue because it helps us keep track of if they have any intestinal parasites, any redness or swelling.

Very good.

They are trained to sit so that they can stay still on a scale or inside of a crate.

The Bobcats are trained to stand up and put their paws on the chain link so that we're able to look at their paw pad conditions and look at their stomachs.

All of this training really helps us stay on top of their health without any stress to them.

They love training.

They get lots of reinforcement for doing things I asked them to do.

Enrichments are activities that keeps them mentally and physically stimulated.

Sometimes it may be music.

Sometimes it could be bubbles.

A bubble machine.

So today she's getting a box with a plain sheet inside.

She seems to really be enjoying it.

So what I'll do is just leave the exhibit door open.

So if she wants to head out there while we're finishing up his training outside, she can do that.

Mouth.

Good boy.

All done.

The living stream is an outdoor aquarium that holds multiple variety of fish.

You can go in and see it as if you were looking underwater at the fish themselves and see their environment.

Its like an exhibit version of Elkhorn Creek or Guist Creek.

It has native fish that you'll find in those creeks.

We've got crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass, red ear, catfish, long nose, short nose and spotted gar, drums.

We just have a wide variety of fish species that you'll find in Kentucky.

What we're going to do now is feed the fish in the living stream.

We usually start by taking a dip net and getting about four bucket fulls of minnows.

We've got them all over here now.

Hopefully they're hungry.

Generally, when we take our minnows to the living stream, they eat like piranhas.

But today they're not as active and are not eating.

With water temperatures as cold as they are, they're going to eat slow.

Doesn't look like too many of them are hungry right now, but they have plenty to eat.

What isn█t eaten will survive and they'll have them a few days from now.

Our bald eagle is another animal people love to see.

People ask us often why he can't be released.

He was injured from a power line.

He's non releasable because he cannot fly.

We're going to try to weigh the eagle today.

We typically weigh the animals twice a month just to keep a good look on their weight.

When we weight our eagle, he knows exactly what we want because he's done it so much.

We█ll generally just point and he goes and gets on the scale.

4285 grams.

Good bird.

There's always a lot of things going on around here.

Sometimes it's a big job, sometimes it's a little job, but we always stay busy.

I really enjoy working here, working with the animals, and it's something that I know that I'm going to enjoy when I come back to work tomorrow.

We have a really good work dynamic here.

It's nice to have a team of people that you can count on.

We never know what we're going to show up to from a day to day basis.

The animals behave differently through the seasons, but I love working here and it's nice to know at the end of the day when we leave here, we know that we've provided the best care possible for these animals.

Don't miss out on probably the best time of year to catch a trophy large mouth from a farm pond, and that is late winter and early spring.

Feel that sunshine.

It feels like it is the middle of the summer.

But don't let that fool you.

If you're a largemouth bass fisherman, this is probably the best time of year to target a trophy fish.

That's the goal.

This time of year.

It's all about finding that warm water.

And when I say warm water, I mean two or three degrees warmer than the other side.

And that's all it takes to get those fish to move from the deeper water to the more shallow water.

This is also the north shore.

So what that means is, as the sun travels, this side is never shaded.

It's getting full sun all day long.

So we've got a south wind blowing that air in this way.

Everything is set up perfectly for this side to be a couple of degrees warmer and hopefully holding those big fish.

I think i█m going I think i█m going to step down.

There█s fish, it took off right there.

Look.

Wow.

Look at these mud plumes that come out.

Those are large mouth.

Those are big ones.

Those are big fish.

Whatever took off right there.

Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh.

I don't know what this is.

If it's a large mouth, it's a really, really good one.

And I believe it is.

Wow.

This is why you get out early and all your friends are telling you that the boat's not ready to go yet.

You don't need a boat.

Go hit a farm pond, walk around the bank, find the area that gets the most sun and is shallow.

That's a plus four pound fish right there.

Now.

Yeah.

It's not the largest bass in the world.

But I'll tell you what, that is a good, healthy, respectable bass right there.

Probably about a four pounder.

Something tells me there's a lot more of these in here.

I need to get this thing back in water and get this line weighed again.

Come on, Big girl.

What a pretty fish.

There she goes.

Wind is blowing right here.

Everything I know about fishing tells me they should be right here.

Shallow, north bank, wind blowing.

There are thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of ponds just like this across state of Kentucky.

And I'll tell you what, for early season fishing, this is where it starts.

This is just a little Senko and I literally have it with no weight, zero weight whatsoever.

Get their lips on one of these Senko█s they can't turn it down.

The bait that looks like nothing but works.

Ooh, What about that?

Oh, my goodness.

That was awesome.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my goodness sakes live.

That bass.

I kept getting less and less weight because I'm getting a bunch of moss, and I'd pick that Senko up and I let it drift.

I actually went down in size and Senko.

I like throwing bigger baits this time of year to try to attract a bigger fish.

I went down in weight.

I took the weight completely off and went down in size and I picked that bait up right around these little dark spots and it came up and looked at it and I saw the fish and when it sucked that bait in, it was gone.

It was gone.

That's about another four pounder or so.

Like I say, it's not a numbers game this time of year.

It is really about taking a chance at catching the big fish.

You got to be patient.

You got to move that lure very, very slow.

You want to catch big fish, get started early, and you may have to adjust your weight and your presentation.

But man, how exciting can it be?

Hey, that█s two fish.

I'd say both of them are 4 lbs solid fish.

Can't beat it.

Lot of fun.

Tell you what.

Late winter, early spring, you get a day.

Super nice.

Especially two or three in a row.

Be the first one out.

Social media is covered up with really big large bass in February and March, and that's because that's the easiest time to catch a big fish.

Now, it's not a good time to go catch 20, 30, 40 bass but if you'll slow down, they have to work with your weight and presentation.

Oh there he is.

Oh, this is another good fish here.

This is the time of year you can go out and catch your personal best largemouth bass.

I tell you what, some of the largest fish I've ever caught have been in that February and March timeframe.

Lo and behold, these are the type of fish that are biting today.

It's a great time of year to catch your personal best.

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 a Elias Bittle with his very first rabbit.

He got this rabbit while hunting with his papa, Donnie Thornton, and his rabbit dog, Dan.

Nice job.

Here we have Caleb Richardson and his grandmother.

After a missed opportunity during archery season, he was able to take this impressive buck with a rifle.

Check out this impressive largemouth bass that was caught on Baron River Lake.

This fish was caught by Caden Elmore and weighed over five and a half pounds.

Nice job.

Spring is right around the corner.

You know what that means?

It's time for our live question and answer show, all about fishing.

Please check our Facebook page for more details.

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.