Steve Merlo: Ducks abundant on hunting trip to Mexico
| Thursday, Feb 19 2009 10:11 PM
Last Updated Friday, Mar 27 2009 01:23 PM
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Left to right: Jon Tkac, Paul Anspach, Robb Stewart, Andy Paulden, Roger Griess and Steve Merlo show off their first morning's take while duck hunting on a recent trip to Los Mochis, Mexico.
Without actually being there in person, I suppose it would be difficult for anyone to fathom what 2,500 green-wing teal look like coming in to only 14 decoys. But, that's exactly what happened when my friend Jon Tkac and I experienced that incredible sight more than once this past week.
We were duck hunting in Los Mochis, Mexico, in the State of Sinaloa, almost 800 miles below the border. Believe it or not, Los Mochis has a population of nearly 500,000, but one gets the feeling it is much smaller than the numbers point out. Children play outside their homes, families stroll the streets in the evenings and we had a really nice sense of security whenever we left the downtown hotel for our hunting destinations.
Hunting with outfitter "Sinalopatos," owned and operated by Bobby Balderrama, Bobby has owned the company since 1985, and strives to make his dove and duck hunting business the best there is south of the border. I don't know if his monetary numbers will bear him out, but if he isn't, he's got to be close, because our group had an incredibly great time and his place stayed full all week.
Our six-man group of hunters, team leader Andy Paulden, John Tkac, Paul Anspach, Robb Stewart, Roger Griess and me had left Bakersfield early last week in hopes of blasting a few of the thousands of migratory waterfowl calling the place home for the winter. In case you're wondering, when one speaks of ducks heading south, Los Mochis is where they end up each year, and that's where plenty of serious North American duck and dove hunting "Gringos" end up, too, including us.
The bird shooting, whether for duck, mourning or white-wing dove, has to rank as some of the best in the world. Though we did not chase doves on this trip, I am still inclined to rate Argentine dove shooting as the best in the world, but when one mentions ducks, or patos, Mexico has the upper hand over its South American cousins. Not that Mexico has to take a back seat when it comes to doves, with most shooters taking from 750 to nearly 1200 birds per day.
An incredible number of different waterfowl species call the salt and brackish water mud flats where we hunted home. During our short, five-day stay, we managed to bring down mixed limits every single time we hunted.
Our bird limits consisted of green- and blue-wing teal (80 percent), pintails (25 birds), gadwalls (3 birds), red-breasted mergansers (2 birds), bufflehead (1 bird), northern shoveler (8 birds), Mottled Ducks (8 birds) and Pichihuilas (75 birds). We lost very few birds because of the tenacity of the bird boys (actually bird men) we hired, whose athletic strength and determination to retrieve our harvest went above and beyond what we expected.
The popular pichihuilas (Pronounced 'pinchiwillows') are actually Black-bellied and Fulvous Tree Ducks, a very desirable duo to hunt and bring to bag because of their wonderfully tasting meat. They kind of resemble in flight one of our own shorebirds, the Glossy Ibis, when their flocks roll past the blind, but their wing coloring, sharp whistle and duck beak set them apart. They are a decent-sized bird, with a solid 2.5-foot wingspan, and remind me a lot of cackling geese without the cackle.
They were the highlight of our adventure and were great fun to shoot because they regularly came into our decoys and answered the guides' whistles. Jon and I managed to take 40 of the nice birds one evening, including one volley where we knocked down nine of the handsome-plumaged ducks out of one flock and seven out of the next.
A trip to the Los Mochis marshes is more than just a duck hunting trip. The bird watching is second to none, with hundreds of different species surrounding us at all times. Flamingos, pink ibis, white ibis, pelicans and a ton of shorebirds kept us busy with the identification books while we waited in our caracas, or blinds.
Jon and I shot well during our stay, as did the rest of the group, but with the shooting as fast and furious as it was, it was no wonder the nationals handed us cases, rather than boxes, of ammunition. We also brought home 45-ducks apiece, the legal amount that can be brought into the country per person, enabling us to completely restock our freezers with the succulent take. The rest of our harvest went to the local villagers, who eagerly took any extra birds we had.
In Sunday's special column, I'll tell you of our stay at the 5-Star Plaza Hotel in downtown Los Mochis, the 5-star Mr. Owens' restaurant where we ate in every morning and evening, and the great service extended to us by the outstanding staff. I'll also tell you how to get there and who to contact, and how not to be worried about going south. Oh, yeah, and also, which tequila is the best tasting — we should know, because I think we sampled every one they make.
