Went on a trip to Los Mochis Mexico to kill ducks, quail, and doves last week. The hunting was absolutely awesome, accommodations were great, food/drink were phenomenal, and the weather was unbelievable (sunny, no clouds). We were the only hunting group at the lodge/hotel, so they pampered us!
Day 1 morning – duck hunt. We were hunting a shallow marsh, where the airboat driver drops you off with your bird boy. He would drive around the marsh scouting and then move us to a different spot. We finished with 39 ducks.
Day 1 afternoon – duck hunt. Same marsh as the morning, just different location. This was the afternoon of the ruddy ducks (15) and cinnamon teal (14). We had an absolute blast shooting the ruddy ducks as they flew past our blind 1 at a time. Those little monkeybutts fly ~ 1 foot off the water, which enabled us to literally shoot down on them as they tried to fly by our blind through a natural opening between our island and the island next to us. We finished with 59 ducks.
Day 2 morning – duck hunt. Different marsh. The most ducks we saw all weekend. Unfortunately, we both had major shooting issues at the exact same time! I think we only had 10 ducks when we moved, but had shot over 3 boxes of shells! These were not hard shots! We couldn’t hit our a$$ with both hands – both of us! We should have (and could have) left that spot with > 80 birds! Once we moved, we shot better and ended up with 44. Frank and I both got the Mexican Mallards we were pursuing, along with the most beautiful redhead you will ever see.
Day 2 afternoon – quail hunt. We hunted Gambel’s quail and scaled quail. This was tough hunting (cactus and other prickly plants) in hot weather (80F) and sandy soil conditions. We retrieved (us and the guides, no dogs) 19 quail. Frank got his Gambel’s for the wall, but we messed up and mis-identified the scaled quail as a susie Gambel’s. We ended up eating the only scaled quail we shot for dinner! Oops!
Day 3 morning – duck hunt. We went to a salt marsh trying to get the Pacific Brant. Unfortunately, our coordinator and guide didn’t understand what Frank was asking regarding the Brant – they have already headed north from Los Mochis and we never saw a one! We had a fun hunt once we moved inland. The tide was out but coming in. We were next to a tidal mud flat on an extended peninsula. The birds would loop around an island and we would just wait for them to come right in on the backside. We had ducks laying every where! We finished with 76 ducks! Francisco (Pancho) was our airboat driver and Manual (Memo) was our bird boy for the weekend. Neither one could speak English, so that was a pain at times, but we managed.
Day 3 afternoon – dove hunt. The quail guys took us to their dove field. It was everything you have ever heard about a Mexico/Argentina dove hunt and then some. There were doves every where! Frank finished with 85 doves and I finished with 65 doves! I would only shoot 1 dove and would make myself reload before I would shoot at another. My bird boy kept getting mad that I wasn’t shooting, but I was in no hurry. You could shoot as many doves as you wanted (and could afford the shells)!
I brought 8 more species home for the wall: Mexican Mallard, Mottled, Redhead, Cinnamon Teal, Gadwall, Wigeon, and Green Wing – the wife is going to freak! Additionally, we killed pintails, blue wing teal, and shovelers.
My buddy will love this one – even the Mexicans won’t eat spoonies! Our guide would give all of the birds we shot to the locals. However, every time, they threw the spoonies (and ruddy’s) into the weeds at the boat launches!
All right, wake me up when September starts! However, if someone wants to go to Argentina in July……. Jeff
Great job 
It sometimes doesn’t end up that way. Congrats and thanks for sharing it with us. 
very cool mounts 