By Bill Karr
WON Staff Writer
CULIACAN, Mexico.- Just 3 hours earlier we had been fighting traffic, parking the car at LAX
and boarding the Aero California flight for Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. But here we were, in an
airboat on our way to a duck blind at the 28,000-acre marsh near Culiacan before noon. What a
change from downtown L.A!
It was 11:38 a.m. on Dec.2, and we had just finished up a fantastic home-cooked lunch at the
lodge at Patolandia, or "Duck Land" in english. We changed into our hunting clothes, were issued
rental shotguns by our host, Gilberto Salomon, and we were off for a blind in the marsh that is
hunted exclusively by Patolandia.
The edge of the vast wetland is visible from the lodge, which consist of a central palapa for
outdoor barbecues and entertainment surrounded by a few block buildings that offer clean sleeping
quarters and the kitchen, dinning room and some additional quarters. This is the place for those
who live, eat and breath duck hunting!
The airboat ride out to the blind was similar to the old E-ticket ride at Disneyland, where hand-cut
watercourses wind their way through 10-foot-high tule and cattail "forests" that break into tule
ponds and water expanses, full of thousands of ducks of every species, and some white front geese.
Friend Chris Carbonel of Rancho Palos Verdes and I were in our blind with guide and caller Ruben by
12:37. Decoys were out, ducks were flying, and we were offered shots at teal, spoonies and the
occasional bigger birds about every 10 or 15 minutes. We were being a little too particular this
first day of our 4-day dove and duck hunting excursion, which was to encompass both Culiacan and
Los Mochis, and we ended up with 14 birds by 3:16 p.m.
"We just wanted to give you a little taste of what we have to offer," apologized Gilberto Salomon
after the brief hunt. "Tomorrow we'll have enough time to get you into a good blind and you'll see
what the Culiacan marsh really has to offer." The dinner that evening was excellent, prepared
by 3 cooks who made fresh tortillas and an excellent meal. Other guests there included Bill
Marble of Moorpark, Patrick Welch of West Lake Village, Jack Brunk of Simi Valley and Chris
Brown of Valencia.
"It's been a great three days," said Welch of his past few days of hunting. "We hunted geese
on Monday for awhile and shot 6 specks in the morning, the we went for ducks and limited out
in a couple of hours. Hunting here is hassle-free." That means that he and Bill Marble shot
their 40 ducks, plus 6 geese, during the day's hunt, which normally begins around 9 a.m. and
ends by mid-afternoon.
The 28,000-acre Culiacan marsh is divided into 6 areas, according to Salomon, which encompasses
shallow water, deep water, varios types of marsh from fresh-water to saline, and a choice of
120 blinds. He never hunts more than 200 people a year, for about 450 to 500 hunting days a year
during their long season from Nov. 7 through March 8, 1998. Normally there are no more that
12 hunters out in the marsh at any time, and he rotates the hunting areas daily to rest the
birds.
The main ingrediend for success here is the big number of birds, the huge marsh, and communication
between everyone involved. Each airboat, guide, vehicle and the headquarters is equipped with a
radio, and they are in communication constantly.
After 19 years of running Patolandia,
the Salomon clan knows how to handle waterfowlers.
Our hunt next day involved changing blinds twice into total diverse marsh areas, and it was our
choice as to how long we wanted to hunt, since we could have had our 20-bird limit in less
than an hour had we wanted to. As it as well, we had 32 birds by 10:11 a.m., including a mix
of widgeon, gadwall, teal and pintail or two, and the prize of any mexican hunt, a Pichiguila,
or Mexican whistling tree duck.
Then it was off to Los Mochis, where we were hunt ducks on the 30,000-acre marshland around
Topolobampo Bay with PT Hunting, operated by Jose "PT" Salomon, father of Gilberto Salomon who
runs Patolandia. As if that wasn't enough Salomon's, our host and guide for the entire trip
was Gilberto's brohter, Jose Manuel Salomon, who drove us up to Los Mochis. There we settled
into the lodge at Billy Chapman's. And what a lodge! Cooks prepared our every meal, including
pre-dawn breakfasts and groumet dinners, accompanied with our choice of wines or cocktails.
Our first day's itineray was doves in the morning and ducks in the afternoon, and we were off
at 5:15 a.m. with guides Luis and Raul Alfredo Domiguez for the dove fields after a hot and
filling breakfast. The limit for doves is 20 per day for mourning doves and 20 per day for
whitewings, but they are usually found in different areas and fly at different times. This
shoot was for mourning doves, just 45 minutes out of Los Mochis, and it wasn't long after
daylight when the first birds came winging through the desert cactus and mesquites trees.
Shooting was as fast as you could find a target and pull the trigger as doves screamed
through in singles, doubles and at times, simply in waves of birds that went on for 5 or 10
minutes. Our 20-bird limits were accomplished within an hour or less, and we were on our
way to the marsh to meet with PT. His crew of airboat operators and guides were ready and
waiting, and before long we were off-loaded into another excellent blind with our guide Luis.
Our hunts with PT were similar to the ones at Patolandia, with the same big variety of
ducks and flocks from 5 to 50 coming into our decoys and over our blind with regularity. To
shoot a limit if 20 ducks was not a time-consuming affair ever, and even if you passed by
the teal and spoonies, gathering the pintail, widgeon and gadwall wasn't difficult.
The last day of our hunting was for whitewing. We were still waiting an hour after daylight
for the first flight, and I was about ready to give up when they finally began flying into
the harvested rice field we were hunt next to. And they came!
Those big, loafing birds coming
in at 40 yards were first shot by Carbonel some 100 yards away from me, and then they would
dive for the deck and come rushing into were I was, providing some of the toughest shooting
I've yet had. Flocks were from 20 to 150 birds, and again, it wasn't long before we had our
limits and were on our way back to Los Mochis for a transfer to Culiacan.
Our trip was a big success, and one of the main reasons is that we didn't bother with gun
permits or bringing weapons into Mexico. A recent law has enabled licensed outfitters in
Mexico to rent their own guns to visitors, so all americans has to do is buy a hunting
license. The guns are almost all Remington 870's, and most of them operate well and are
well-maintained.
Daily limits in Sinaloa are 20 mourning doves, 20 whitewings, 20 ducks and 5 geese per day,
with possesion limits (that you can bring back to the United States) of 60 whitewings, 60
mourning dove, 40 ducks and 15 gesse. Bring a colapsible ice chest like those made by
Coleman so you can bring them back.
