Came home more relaxed than I've been in years. This definitely qualifies as a favorite "duck hunt". You'll kill more birds in South America than on this Mazatlan Mexico duck hunt, but the limits are generous and you'll shoot plenty.
Cinnamon teal, blue-wing teal, green-winged teal, whistling ducks (black-bellied and fulvous both), pintail and the almighty Ramzilla, as it's refered to in certainly discreet circles: the northern shoveler. My blind was fortunate enough to shoot our 20-bird limits daily. The weather was a perfect mid-50s in the morning and mid-80s in the afternoon. Never broke a sweat, never got cold, and thankfully wasn't experiencing the 8-inch snow that fell the night of our departure.
Immaculate, unplugged Benelli Super Sports were included in the package at no extra cost. They're ported but a fine shooting shotgun. Everything necessary for this duck hunt can be packed in a carry-on. Forget the waders and bring knee boots just in case.
After the morning duck hunt we returned to the hotel-lodge, showered, napped, whatever, and later joined up at the poolside bar for pre-dinner happy hour where 4-5 cocktails, chips and salsa crowded $12-13 dollars. Caught a truck bed taxi to a restaurant for fresh daily shrimp, lobster, oysters cooked a million different great ways.
There were 10 couples. The girls shopped, got manicures, massages, or sunned. Para-sailing, beach walking, deep-sea fishing, bass fishing, tennis, golf, dove hunting - plenty of options to choose from as afternoon diversions or in lieu of morning duck hunting. We had the right crowd of folks, and I laughed for 3 days straight.
Anita and I never shut our balcony doors - 5 foot waves pounded sand 200 feet away. An ocean breeze swept through the room, fresh off the Pacific Ocean. I reminded myself: it's February. And I'm duck hunting!
Airboated to the blinds at 9 am one morning. It was a freshwater estuary that the birds were coming into later in the morning, as the temperatures warmed and the birds abandoned the saltwater. It was beautiful. Didn't know there were as many American avocets, black-necked stilts and countless other shore birds in the world. Flocks of ducks everywhere you looked.
Chacau was our bird boy one morning. Been with the operation for 10 years, whistles and barks like teal as well as any caller I've ever heard. At an estimated 105 pounds can track across the marsh huffing a filterless cigarrette to recover ducks as easily as most here walk across their living room carpet. Doesn't speak much english - duck, left, right, up, low, beer, yes, no, pintail, cinnamon, bluewing, greenwing, rudy (which I learned meant ruddy), scope (which means scaup) 20, 40, thanks, you're welcome and good shot - but understands everything you ask or say, can open a cerveza with a bic lighter quicker than you can blink an eye. And if there's one thing I sure like to see any bird boy do without being asked is picking up a species of duck he knows you're interested in by the bill or foot and carefully studying the plumage to determine it's a worthy keeper before strapping it up. Field staff were on par with the most experienced and professional of any I've been around, and Pat Pitt agrees, which speaks volumes because if the staff isn't above average we don't represent the operation in the first place.
The final morning's hunt ended on a great note. They still had to drop off 3 groups after us and kicked up plenty of birds in doing so. First volley, I tripled on a cinnamon teal, green-winged teal and a blue wing. Admittedly, the duck with the blue wing was another Ramzilla! You never know what you will see or collect while duck hunting in Mexico. I'm reminded often of Pat Pitt's observations that "there aren't any fences in the sky." Hybrids killed on this hunt include 2 Bluewing/Cinnamon Hybrids, a Shoveler/Bluewing a Gadwall/Shoveler hybrid. Rare trophies to say the least.
It was a fairly even mix of teal for our blind, with maybe just slightly less blue-wings, and far more cinnamons than I had expected. Three of us (2 blinds) shot about 30 black-bellied whistling ducks (pichiguilas) the first morning, and I brought 3 nice ones home to have mounted.
A limit of 20 ducks per man/day is slightly less than half the number of ducks per hunt I normally expect while duck hunting in Argentina, or in Uruguay for that matter, and one-third or less per-man that will be killed on great morning shoots. Mazatlan duck hunts are a great couples retreat, the more couples, the merrier.
Related Links: Mazatlan Mexico Duck Hunting, Guided Mexico Hunts, Guided Duck Hunting, Mazatlan Mexico Duck Hunting Photo Gallery
Ramsey Russell's GetDucks.com
Cinnamon teal, blue-wing teal, green-winged teal, whistling ducks (black-bellied and fulvous both), pintail and the almighty Ramzilla, as it's refered to in certainly discreet circles: the northern shoveler. My blind was fortunate enough to shoot our 20-bird limits daily. The weather was a perfect mid-50s in the morning and mid-80s in the afternoon. Never broke a sweat, never got cold, and thankfully wasn't experiencing the 8-inch snow that fell the night of our departure.
Immaculate, unplugged Benelli Super Sports were included in the package at no extra cost. They're ported but a fine shooting shotgun. Everything necessary for this duck hunt can be packed in a carry-on. Forget the waders and bring knee boots just in case.
There were 10 couples. The girls shopped, got manicures, massages, or sunned. Para-sailing, beach walking, deep-sea fishing, bass fishing, tennis, golf, dove hunting - plenty of options to choose from as afternoon diversions or in lieu of morning duck hunting. We had the right crowd of folks, and I laughed for 3 days straight.
Anita and I never shut our balcony doors - 5 foot waves pounded sand 200 feet away. An ocean breeze swept through the room, fresh off the Pacific Ocean. I reminded myself: it's February. And I'm duck hunting!
Airboated to the blinds at 9 am one morning. It was a freshwater estuary that the birds were coming into later in the morning, as the temperatures warmed and the birds abandoned the saltwater. It was beautiful. Didn't know there were as many American avocets, black-necked stilts and countless other shore birds in the world. Flocks of ducks everywhere you looked.
The final morning's hunt ended on a great note. They still had to drop off 3 groups after us and kicked up plenty of birds in doing so. First volley, I tripled on a cinnamon teal, green-winged teal and a blue wing. Admittedly, the duck with the blue wing was another Ramzilla! You never know what you will see or collect while duck hunting in Mexico. I'm reminded often of Pat Pitt's observations that "there aren't any fences in the sky." Hybrids killed on this hunt include 2 Bluewing/Cinnamon Hybrids, a Shoveler/Bluewing a Gadwall/Shoveler hybrid. Rare trophies to say the least.
It was a fairly even mix of teal for our blind, with maybe just slightly less blue-wings, and far more cinnamons than I had expected. Three of us (2 blinds) shot about 30 black-bellied whistling ducks (pichiguilas) the first morning, and I brought 3 nice ones home to have mounted.
A limit of 20 ducks per man/day is slightly less than half the number of ducks per hunt I normally expect while duck hunting in Argentina, or in Uruguay for that matter, and one-third or less per-man that will be killed on great morning shoots. Mazatlan duck hunts are a great couples retreat, the more couples, the merrier.
Related Links: Mazatlan Mexico Duck Hunting, Guided Mexico Hunts, Guided Duck Hunting, Mazatlan Mexico Duck Hunting Photo Gallery
Ramsey Russell's GetDucks.com
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