Obregon Duck Hunts Remembered

Ramsey Russell: I’m your host Ramsey Russell, join me here to listen to those conversations. Mr. Chris Drake from, I keep calling you from North Carolina, but you from right on the border there in Virginia.

Chris Drake: Yes, sir. Southampton county Virginia, just across the border from Murfreesboro, North Carolina.

Ramsey Russell: Third trip to Obregon.

Chris Drake: Yes sir. Third year, 2018, 19, and now again this year.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What does that mean that the hunting is comparable to Virginia and North Carolina down here?

Chris Drake: No, I wouldn’t say that’s exactly correct.

Ramsey Russell: What’s your favorite part about hunting down here, in Obregon?

Chris Drake: The hospitality, the quality of the hunting, the diversity of the species, just the way the guys make you feel at home and something different every day.

Ramsey Russell: Well, the first thing out of your mouth was a hospitality. And I think everybody says that. I tell people in this business all the time, these guys and outfitters, we’re not in the duck hunt businesses, it’s the people businesses, a hospitality business, they hop skip and jump around here, aren’t they?

Chris Drake: Yes, sir. Everybody does everything they can to try to make you feel at home and anything you need there right there to get it for you.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I remind people. You got drivers, you got guide, you got field boys, but then even around here, the trucks are detailed every evening. The cook, the chef. I don’t know when Chef Jorge even sleeps. If I get up at four o’clock, he’s in the kitchen all ready to cook and when I go to bed, he’s still in the kitchen doing something.

Chris Drake: Yes, one thing I definitely noticed the guys are awake at 2:00 – 3:00 am and still going at 9:00 – 9:30 during duck season I don’t think they get a lot of sleep.

Ramsey Russell: And all we have to do is show up and have fun.

Chris Drake: Yeah. For the most part, that’s true.

Ramsey Russell: What do you think about, I’m trying to think of, you and I hunted together and the first day we went to a freshwater pond, it was all right, but you were zinging them. What you kill four out of four gadwalls that come over here?

Chris Drake: Yes sir, I did. Sure did.

Ramsey Russell: Because that fourth one decided to come back and see where friends went. But it was good compared to Mississippi and North Carolina, but then they moved us out of the bay and that’s when things got sideways. Can you remember it seemed like a month ago? But it wasn’t that long ago.

Chris Drake: Yes sir. That hunt turned out to be very good. We had some unexpected brant, three volleys [**00:06:17] if I remember correctly, and we got just about all of them. I only think we had two escapes, and I’ve never shot a brant before, I was very happy to do that and that was fun. Also shot some pin tails, some wigeon out there. Pretty steady action once we got moved.

Ramsey Russell: And they were decoying? In the fresh water they set us up on a little ditch, you can just practically step across but it’s coming out of the mangroves out in the bay and that’s where those birds were hitting was right there. And Chris that’s been, it’s really been a while since I enjoyed that kind of brant action. When we first got there, Goya was like pulling up north of branta branta and I’m there like, it might be a brant or two around here. And then I can say we got three flocks in there, they seemed to work pretty damn good.

Chris Drake: Yes it did. They pretty much came right into the decoys and bunched up in a group and you shot and I shot and you told me what to do, wait until they got together, and it worked out pretty well.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I love brant with a decoy. This morning to me was the highlight of the little stretch of trip we had, went that little freshwater point, it looked like to me the moon is full and I can recall five or six years ago here towards the end of February because we’re just on to tail, we’re within the last calendar week of the season. A full moon hit, and never mind, the clients were here last session or the session before saying they were twice as many ducks as they’ve ever seen in 5 or 6 years. The birds weren’t using the bait, I wasn’t seeing the thousands of pin tails working, it was duck hunting. But this morning was pretty damn good.

Chris Drake: Yes, it was. We shot, both of us shot our limits. We got a lot of Mexican mallards, primarily Mexican mallards, but the good part about it, we mixed in some very nice cinnamon teal, very nice, whistling tree ducks and had a couple of wigeon, couple of redheads, it was just a good diversity of species and it was a really made for a really pretty picture and a very good hunt because most of the birds we shot were decoy in the way they were supposed to decoy. It was classic duck hunting, but in a different environment.

Ramsey Russell: Mexican mallard for you. That was real classical, Mexican duck hunt. Mexican duck is a sub-species of mallard and to me they’re just so unpressured relative to a mallard, anywhere else in North America, not to include black ducks and mottled duck, and I’m a terrible caller, especially that little call I’m practicing with. But man, they would circle around and hook up, give us a high look and stuff like that or just come right in.

Chris Drake: Yeah. They didn’t take much time. I still thought you’re calling was pretty good, but it was good enough to work.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What’s your favorite memory of the three times you’ve been here?

Chris Drake: The two memories, the hunt from this morning definitely would be number one or number two. It would be a tossup between that and in 2019 we hunted in wood frank, pin tail bay. I met a gentleman, a friend of mine hunted there and the pin tail numbers were just unbelievable decoying pin tails. A lot of drakes that year. We shot all the drake pin tails we wanted to shoot and could have shot him many more but decided to lay off after a while, but that hunt probably to me was one of the best ones I’ve been on because we just constant an action with pin tails and watching pin tails lock over decoys and being able to shoot him at 15 or 20 yards in groups of 15 or 20 is something you just don’t get the opportunity to do a lot.

Ramsey Russell: Did you ever have any concerns about coming to Mexico 3-4 years ago? And if you did what would convinced you to come down here?

Chris Drake: Yes and no. You hear what you see on TV and what people will tell you the horror stories, but after talking to you and you re-assured me everything was fine and especially once I got here everything seemed very safe. You were taking care of the whole time and I didn’t have any issues and after coming the first time I did not have any reservations about coming back again even this year with the with the COVID and everything that was going on, the staff on the lodge took off necessary precautions to make everyone safe, feel safe and do everything they needed to do, from a sanitation standpoint. And I haven’t had any concerns, I haven’t felt like I was in danger at any point in time when I was here.

Ramsey Russell: We stay in touch, you and I do Chris in between the time we see each other down here. So I know you hunt, you get around a lot, you do some stuff but and I do too, I travel, but man it wasn’t until I came back down to Mexico that I felt kind of pre-Covid normal again. But they’re taking precautions here in town, at the restaurant, everything’s open, everything’s going, but they check the temperature to do this and do that, everything is clean and sanitized but it just feels normal to be out here acting normal again.

Chris Drake: Yeah, exactly. I had that thought earlier today after I took a shower after hunting and just feeling normal and doing the things I want to do, which is duck hunt of course and eat good food and drink some good drinks with some adult drinks and just felt good to act normal for five days.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, now it’s back to the real world.

Chris Drake: Yes unfortunately. But I think my family and friends will be looking forward to seeing me at home but if I could stay and shoot for another four days like we shot this morning, I think, I’d probably have an unhappy fiancé.

Ramsey Russell: We had a good time this morning, a good way to end the trip, Chris we appreciate you. Thanks for coming on and sharing your thoughts. Okay thank you.

Ramsey Russell: Mr. Al Anderson.

Al Anderson: Yes sir.

Ramsey Russell: Been a good week.

Al Anderson: It’s been awesome week.

Ramsey Russell: And you’re from?

Al Anderson: I’m originally from New Orleans and now live in Fort Worth for about 20 years.

Ramsey Russell: What do you do out there?

Al Anderson: Do commercial constructions of HVAC Business the group that we’re here with. We’re all part of the construction business just coming down here to get away and do some hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, it was a good time. Wasn’t it?

Al Anderson: Awesome.

Ramsey Russell: What was you’re, and I know from visiting with you Anderson, you’ve travelled man, you’ve been to Argentina, you’ve been to some different places, you grew up duck hunting, got a place up in Qantas, Texas that you’re developing for a little bit of waterfowl hunting. But how does Mexico now that you’ve been here, how does that compare to some of your other past experiences?

Al Anderson: Yeah I’d say the differentiator here is the people you got people like Lamberto that’s looking at everything that you do trying to make sure that you’re having a good time, the attention to detail is just remarkable. Danny who was our guide for the week and driver. They just want to make sure that every little thing is taking care of, you can duck hunt on all your life, but you come here and you don’t have to worry about the details, you just show up and get in the boats and those guys just hard working to make sure that your experience is top notch.

Ramsey Russell: We’ve been representing this outfit for a decade and it is so well organized and you think about it, there were 10 of us this week and we’re running different blinds were going different places, you all went for brant this morning, we’re going to talk about, we went for a pothole duck, somebody went somewhere else to do something else, the trucks are detailed every little detail and wrinkle everything. All you have to do is wake up and step into suburban. That’s it. And somebody, don’t just happen by accident, it’s all these people going and I think the Chris that was just on, we’re talking to, the first thing out of his mouth was the hospitality, and it’s just, we were talking, I know you and I and your buddies were talking over this week, it’s every business is a people business.

Al Anderson: Absolutely relationships and you walk in the door and people know your name and they care about you, they’re invested in you and they want to make sure you’re having a good time. It’s not, hey, we’re trying to get your business to make money, and they want to make sure that you’re having fun.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, that’s the number one reason people come on trips like this that have vacation of a lifetime and have fun.

Al Anderson: Its memories and this morning four of us were sitting in the brant blind and I’ve never thought about hunting brand in my life. You’re just sitting there and the four of us are, just talking about life and sharing experiences and different hunting stories and waiting for the next wave of brant to come through and we shot the heck out of them.

Ramsey Russell: Let’s talk about the brant hunt this morning, you all went out to Lobos Bay because you want to shoot brant. Brant hunting believe it or not, years ago 5, 6 years ago, this was a brant compost. It was gazillions of brant on all these bays and three out of four mornings we went targeted brant. Ducks were just in afterthought. But then something happened with the brant migrate. We’ve had Chris, nickel, I and others on talking about it, and it’s just something the birth, they just aren’t migrating coming down there, some coming down but they believe it’s like discrete populations and that’s what you’re trying to figure out which brant are still coming down and why are some brant staying back in Alaska? Well, when I knew where you were going, I said, oh yeah, you all going. If a Brant dies in Mexico tomorrow morning is going to be in that blind. What was the water like when you all got there? Was it a high tide, low tide?

Al Anderson: We had low tide, but as we were there for about five hours you can see the tide starting to come in, but the blind, the setup were remarkable. I mean it’s pristine, but just the time that they took to carve out the mangroves and set it up to where you could have high success, sun at your back, just the way they arrange the decoys. It’s perfect.

Ramsey Russell: For a duck hunter, if I’m not there at daylight when the sun comes up, you’re late. But even in the best of years for brant hunting, those birds trigger on tide too low, too high, they don’t fly. It’s got to hit that sweet spot. And so even in the best of years when we just blistered them, you have to get the blind and be patient. Carry a conversation with your buddies talk about stuff, you just have to wait them out. But boy, when they start coming in, they come in, don’t they?

Al Anderson: Yeah, they decoy well.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me about, so you all are sitting there and did you hear them? Did you see them first? Or you look up there all landing.

Al Anderson: As a duck hunter, you really don’t want to make a sign, but everybody’s like hey wave a flag and so Chris has got his hat and he’s waving his hat and we’re like there you go, look at that white sign, and they started coming in the first time and we’re just sitting there talking and literally I kind of made a joke like boys, it’s time, like these birds on their way from Alaska, it’s time for them to show up, and no longer than I got the words out of the mouth, they flew right over the blind and we’ve got our next wave of them and just slaughtered them.

Ramsey Russell: And I got a couple of pictures from you. You killed 18 brant and two bands.

Al Anderson: Yeah.

Ramsey Russell: Who got the band?

Al Anderson: So myself and Chris got one. And that’s actually the first band in my life. And I’ve been hunting for over 30 years and grew up in New Orleans and have canvasback on the wall and other ducks that I’ve hunted throughout my entire life, and it’s one of those things being in the right place, right time being on the water a long time but I just never had it, and it’s going to be memorable for sure.

Ramsey Russell: Those Mindel [**00:18:19] bands look brand new, shiny as a brand new nickel. But pretty surprising when you got the band data back. Tell us about that band how old he was?

Al Anderson: Yeah. So that duck was a male from Alaska, at least 12 years old, very healthy duck and beautiful duck. I mean dark black feathers on the belly, great markings around the neck for the white ring, but just knowing that those things migrate 3000 plus miles every year.

Ramsey Russell: At least 40,000 miles.

Al Anderson: Yeah. I mean just to think of what that duck does and you think about how many times that duck been shot at through his entire life and it’s made it all the way down here. I mean it’s seen its share of stories.

Ramsey Russell: That’s a good point. What was your favorite not the brant hunt. What’s your favorite duck? What was your favorite duck hunt down here?

Al Anderson: Rednecks and trucks is the way we termed it.

Ramsey Russell: I have got clients that would come to this location to hunt canals from the back of a truck all day every day. We don’t let them. For those, you all, listening wasn’t what the heck we’re talking about we’re in Yaqui Valley. If you’ve ever eaten a tour of flour tortilla the week came from Yaqui Valley, millions of acres of it. It’s all gravity fed irrigated and just millions and millions of miles of ditches. And fresh water, and that’s where these Mexican ducks really like to hang out and just as a little nap in the afternoon, on the way back to camp, we’ll put two or three guys back of truck and put along and drink a few beers and shoot a few ducks out of back the truck. But it’s fun.

Al Anderson: Yeah. We drink a lot of beer.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, a lot of beer, but so much fun. I mean, it’s not experience you can have in the US. I mean it’s totally different. It’s what you would in your mind like man, this would be a lot of fun and it’s a blast. I mean it really is. You can shoot a lot of ducks. There’s so many ducks. And you have a lot of fun, laughs with your buddy in the back of the truck.

Ramsey Russell: You know you’re going home with a banded brant. What other species you taking home for taxidermy?

Al Anderson: I got the Grand Slam of teal, cinnamon, green, blue.

Ramsey Russell: Teal traffic.

Al Anderson: So even shot a mallard and ironically I don’t have a mallard just because shot so many in Arkansas and everywhere. But you don’t see them down here. And got one of those and I’ve shot Mexican mallards in Argentina and Uruguay, but actually shoot one here in Mexico special beautiful birds, I mean they’re brown bird but you look at the blue color in their wings.

Ramsey Russell: Somebody wrote me today, inbox and social media going, how come the so called the Mexican mallard really Mexican duck, but they go, how come they are covered up? Well, he is covered up is an adult drake. This is a beautiful breeding plant, essentially, there are 13 subspecies of mallards or mallard like ducks on earth and all Northern hemisphere. Well, except for Africa, you’ve got a couple down there in Australia, but all of them are black and brown, they’re just dark, only the mallard is conspicuous and green head and it’s weird isn’t it? They’re all kind of a mallard like duck, they quack and they got the white wing bar and they got the colorful speculum and they decoy and they behave like similarly to mallards because they are but they’re not covered up there just brown and dry. But I still think there’s just a subtle beauty of these Mexican ducks and they respond to calls, we Chris rock and I hunted game and we made them pay rent. And he was amazing because if you can just, they won’t all do it the pairs this time of year. They’ll just kind of be indifferent like mallards this time of year. But boy those single drakes like well I think we shot a bunch and I think we shot two pins and the rest were adult drake. They’re going to give you a look, or they going to come in.

Al Anderson: Yeah, we hunted some flooded grassland a couple days ago and you know we had a lot of doubles and three’s coming in and they would absolutely respond and they come into the decoys and head up and it’s just a side of beauty seeing them coming in and circling around and just waiting for him to come on in.

Ramsey Russell: Did you have any qualms coming to Mexico?

Al Anderson: I mean personally I didn’t. I’ve travelled a lot and I grew up in New Orleans and so I’m not too worried about coming here at all and we’ve actually left the house and gone out to some of the bars in the city and Lamberto set it up for us and a great time just seeing the sights and interacting with the people of town and.

Ramsey Russell: Just good friendly normal people.

Al Anderson: Oh people are genuine and hardworking people. But great spirit and soul.

Ramsey Russell: It’s just driving around town if people are sitting on a street corner talking or even the staff around here even if they’re out there working they’re smiling. They’re happy people. So it made me happy. Yeah it’s contagious.

Al Anderson: Definitely would come back and had no concerns at all.

Ramsey Russell: Al, I appreciate you all being here. Looking forward to hunt with you again

Al Anderson: Yeah, for sure, thank you so much. Looking forward to it.

Ramsey Russell: Mr. Chris Wall from Texas. We met at Dallas Safari club.

Chris Wall: That’s right.

Ramsey Russell: When? I guess year before last.

Chris Wall: That was January, 2020. Before the pandemic hit.

Ramsey Russell: And here we are. You come in asking about Obregon, Mexico. What were you looking for, when you came to the booth looking for this hunt? What do you think you were looking for?

Chris Wall: Well, I knew that I wanted to go late in the season, after our season was over in Texas. And knew that the ducks were continuing the migration and that they’re going to be full bloom and really bright, vibrant colors and not a whole lot of pressure down here. And so I wanted to get the ducks we typically hunt in Texas, and on top of that I wanted to hunt something that we don’t get there in Texas, be pacific brants or black brant, whatever you want to call it. I think we even talked about even just doing a brant hunt, but really wanted to do more than that, but I didn’t want to side-line that.

Ramsey Russell: You bring up a good point that to me, I know you’ve been to Argentina, you have been to different places I have to all over the world, love to go. But there’s really a lot to be said for hunting familiar species, our species are North American species. That really means a lot to me coming to Mexico because you nailed it is my species central and pacific flyway birds, but they’re brilliant color drawing a breeding plans right now and it just makes for a real special experience. You don’t get me wrong, I love shooting a bar headed goose. But that ain’t my species. Cinnamon teal, green wings, blue wings those are my species.

Chris Wall: Yeah, going after the trophy birds that you go after at home.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, tell me what was your favorite hunt here so far?

Chris Wall: You know that’s really kind of a tough question because they were all special. They were all really good. Even like you had some hunts where the quantity might not have been there, like the other hunts, but they were good in the sense of like you felt like you were hunting at home. Let me think, which one, I guess I would say probably, man that’s tough. Probably the first day, just because it was me and really didn’t know what to expect, what we’re going to see and how it’s going to be and just that excitement going into it and really trying to figure it out. But also anticipation of the birds that were going to be coming in? What they were? How they were going to act? How are they going to be different? How are they going to be similar? How do we need to adjust? And just like a kid on Christmas morning, can’t wait to get up, go open the gifts and just excitement of being there.

Ramsey Russell: The first day, we drove down to and you bump obey [**00:27:25] a 90,000 acre estuary. How long into the truck right down there? Did you realize I’m in the middle of a freaking desert and I’m duck hunting in the middle of a desert? It’s kind of crazy, isn’t it?

Chris Wall: Yeah, I would say that’s when we turned off the main road.

Ramsey Russell: Starts seeing I was Sonora cactuses. And then you pull off into this wetland. Had water there’s ducks.

Chris Wall: I didn’t know where we’re going. I was like, I’m glad somebody knows where we’re going because we’re going nowhere like middle of nowhere and it’s just like I said, a desert.

Ramsey Russell: What did you think about the staff here?

Chris Wall: That was awesome. It was great. Frank, Danny, Liberto everybody was top shelf. Look at the work, even like, Goya and Alejandro and Ricky out there in the airboats, that’s a lot of work while we’re going to sleep or getting up. Man, they’ve been sitting out there pulling that airboat, getting the platforms up, getting, getting the brush cut, getting the decoys out. I mean, they’ve been up since midnight, maybe. Sometimes they go down and spend the night. They get started at midnight and get all that stuff and all we do is show up and step into blind and start shooting.

Chris Wall: Absolutely. It can definitely spoil you. And that’s one thing, that it really makes you appreciate a place like this is being a duck hunter and then going out and trying to get ready, trying to get everything set up, get there, get everything set up, get ready for shooting time. But here coming and it’s all done for you knowing what it takes to do it because you’ve done it and then it’s there like these guys really work hard, way before daylight and way after dark.

Ramsey Russell: They have a wake up time usually about 30-45 minutes before time for the truck leave. But you can get up long, it takes to brush your teeth and get the truck because I mean your guns, you waiters and everything is in the truck organized and sorted, you just get in it and hang on, just go with the flow.

Chris Wall: We took advantage of that a couple times.

Ramsey Russell: Oh you all impressed me. I was proud of my southern heritage this morning, when I realized you had gotten up and go. I was proud of you, man. The brant hunt this morning. What do you think?

Chris Wall: I loved it. I thought it was awesome. Knowing that this isn’t just a brand hunt and you just got to be patient with it. I mean, it’s just like it’s hunting, that’s what it is. But knowing that the chances of getting into them and as you like to say, make them pay rent, we made them pay rent this morning. We came out good. So it was exciting.

Ramsey Russell: When we met at Dallas Safari Club, you asked a question, a very common question that I’m asked. Not everybody, but nearly everybody. It’s a legit question, the way the industrial media complex bends the narrative of, Mexico. But you asked the question a fair question. How safe is it? How safe was it?

Chris Wall: It’s very safe, completely comfortable coming down here. I’ll definitely be back. I’ve been to Mexico a few times on vacation. Cancun, Yucatan, Cozumel different places and coming here, just what like you said, what’s portrayed in the media is it’s night and day difference. It’s not like it’s reported. And going back to when we talked about it at Safari Club, I asked you about it and you said safe in comparison to what Birmingham, Jackson, Memphis, Atlanta. Yeah, anywhere. And it is definitely miss conveyed as far as what environments like down here. It’s sure anywhere you’re going to have some rough spots and if you really look at it and you kind of look outside, do your own research outside just what the news reports, you’ll find the real information on it. And a lot of the statistics is based on per capita. And if you look at anything and that way you can put a spin on anything you want to, as far as how it ranks. If it’s per capita, I mean sure you can do any, you can make any statistic change to your favor or shine a negative light on it. Just by how you rank it, how you judge it.

Ramsey Russell: Haven’t spent 20 or 30 years a long time off and on down in Mexico, around Mexico. I read something and it’s been a while, it’s been 10 years ago. But I read a report, that was per capita violent crime and Mexico was statistically the violent crime of Mexico was statistically equal to Orlando, Florida. And if you started looking it, any of the cities we just mentioned plus DC, LA, Chicago, way up higher than the national average of Mexico. And when you come down here and you see it and it’s like the little things, like today. All these folks have real jobs, not the owners but a lot of the helpers, the drivers, Danny they’ve got real businesses, real family job during the off season. And Danny runs like a taco stand and he brought a bunch of food today.

Chris Wall: He did, it was phenomenal.

Ramsey Russell: Real Mexican food. I don’t eat Mexican food back home, I only eat it down here.

Chris Wall: Yeah, it’s authentic. It’ll, just like the duck hunting will ruin you down here. The Mexican food will ruin you down here as well for sure. I get home, I’ve got to lay off the carbs and get the running again.

Ramsey Russell: Good luck on that. Good luck with that. Thank you very much. Chris, we’ve enjoyed having you. I’m sure had a good time with you all are a fun group.

Chris Wall: Same here and I appreciate it, Ramsey. Thanks.

Ramsey Russell: Kevin Miller. Miller time. Miller time, Kevin Miller,

Kevin Miller: It’s Miller time.

Ramsey Russell: Did you have a good week?

Kevin Miller: Fantastic week. Yeah, it was awesome.

Ramsey Russell: What was your favorite part?

Kevin Miller: People, the hunting.

Ramsey Russell: Your people or the staff?

Kevin Miller: Both and everybody here. I tell you, the staff for sure. I’ve been on enough hunts and Argentina was awesome. You can tell it took us a day or two before the staff would treat us like hunters because there’s too many people that go down there that aren’t hunters. They go down there to get catered to and we got taken great care of and great food, great hospitality. But they treat us like hunters, we’re here to hunt.

Ramsey Russell: You all are hunters, that’s just it, you all are hunters. We talked about this to about some of those operations and I think Argentina is notorious for this. They tend to run their hunting lodges like hotels and they’re a little bit different to the people. But you come down here, your driver, Danny treat you like family. He’s bringing your food out of his food stand. He knows, what you drink or what you don’t drink what you want, what’s going on? I mean, it’s just, it’s a level of service that I don’t see you hardly anywhere else.

Kevin Miller: Yeah, it was fantastic.

Ramsey Russell: What a favorite hunt?

Kevin Miller: Man, I think it’s probably going to be the first canal hunt because I’m from Texas, right. Like it’s what every Texan wishes we could do to ride around in the back of a truck and it was real hunt. We killed a ton of ducks, but it was just, that was fantastic. It was so much fun.

Ramsey Russell: We started an ad campaign back during the trump days, never really got wind. But coming to Mexico and have to the fun side of the wall. I mean, it ain’t crazy. It’s legal, it’s ethical, but it’s fun. That’s what we come here for to have fun.

Kevin Miller: Yeah, I mean, I never would have guessed that. That would, if somebody asked me my favorite hunt then I would say I’m going to Mexico and my favorite hunt’s going to be right in the back of a truck. Shoot ducks right? And we did so many other great hunts and they were all so different and that’s what I mean, that was really cool to do. The first morning hunt was awesome. You know and killed 30 something ducks of a bunch of everything. And then dove hunted that afternoon.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. What about that dove hunt? Did you shoot any shells?

Kevin Miller: Shot a few.

Ramsey Russell: That was, even by Sonora standard for this time of year that was an incredible white wing dove hunt. I would say that’s the best February white wing dove hunt I’ve ever seen in Sonora. I don’t know what they did, it was incredible. It wasn’t Argentina back in the day but that’s a lot of birds.

Kevin Miller: It was more pure hunting than Argentina right? Like it was, I mean we’re Texas dove hunters and so it was Texas dove hunting on steroids and Argentina was not hunting, it was shooting.

Ramsey Russell: It is. Did you ever, have you been to quarter? But do you get bored shooting?

Kevin Miller: I did absolutely. Yeah, we actually Al and I went together several years ago and we got so tired of shooting that we hung 20 bucks in the tree and we told our bird boys 20 bucks for the first one to shoot 20 birds. And we sat in the chairs and loaded their guns and watched them shoot and betting on them and playing Robert earl keen, red dirt Texas country and just hooting and hollering. But yeah, we got so tired of shooting were like, we’ll pay for them to shoot.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, I’ve been there, done that and it just, I love to do it to a point and then it’s work. I mean try, I say these guys are here, but these guys want to go shoot 1000 rounds of 1500 rounds a day. Well, try to lift a cold beer 1500 times, alone a shotgun with recoil. That’s work. That’s not fun. And it can be, but it’s not that much fun anymore. Just wears me out a little bit. Is this your first time hunting in Mexico?

Kevin Miller: It is.

Ramsey Russell: What were your thoughts, especially as a Texan, and what were your thoughts coming to battle Mexico?

Kevin Miller: I wasn’t super concerned about it. But part of that is I honestly didn’t even look at where we were going. I knew we were going to Mexico and people would ask what part of Mexico are you going to and I said I don’t know. Chris asked if I wanted to go and he gave me the flight itinerary and I matched it and said yeah I’m in so and I was coming one way or the other and I really didn’t look at where in Mexico I was going until a couple days before. I tell you it’s I mean, I’ve never felt unsafe down here not at all.

Ramsey Russell: Everybody’s happy, everybody friendly, everybody accommodating. It’s a very service oriented culture. More so than anywhere I think I’ve ever been really, I don’t think, I’ve ever been anywhere in the world that is so driven to do things you know like they do. I mean you come up to a red light and have a hold down the road here and nobody walks bible to hand out asking for pesos, they jump up on the truck and wash the window. Then they then they say could have a peso and that that just strikes me. It’s like wow, these people work, they want to work and they want to help them do things that’s just totally different, a lot of parts of the world back home for example. Let me ask you a question. At dinner, we were talking about your vocation, what do you do in Texas?

Kevin Miller: So I’m an engineer and I have a firm that is mechanical electrical and plumbing engineering. And we design hospitals. So we designed mechanical-electrical systems for hospitals.

Ramsey Russell: How long have you been doing that?

Kevin Miller: 22 years. Out of college, I went to a firm, I was at the same firm for right at 20 years and about two years ago left with two of my partners that we had all been together for with a firm at that now is a huge firm. We’ve been together our whole careers, three of us left and started our own two years ago. So we designed hospitals.

Ramsey Russell: So your brand new business?

Kevin Miller: Yes, sir.

Ramsey Russell: You’re just getting started, it takes a while to get going and get solid in COVID hit, that hadn’t been some scary time.

Kevin Miller: It was scary, we had, when we started we left a really big company. So we had a lot of them. Yes, but we had a lot of legal agreements in place and stuff and we left with no work, no clients, no staff. I mean literally a leap of faith and a lot of relationships, 20 years of relationships. And we hired our first Engineer on 24 February 2020 and March 13, Texas shut down. All our jobs started going on. And March 14, our phones started ringing with hospital partners calling us saying can you help us? And we spent two months design COVID suit. And it was.

Ramsey Russell: Talk about perfect timing.

Kevin Miller: Yeah, it was pretty phenomenal. We knew we had relationships, I knew I had deep relationships. I totally underestimated that, when they need help. And it wasn’t even necessarily we were designing them. But sometimes I would just get calls saying, hey, there’s a call with the C suite leadership of a health care system. We don’t know, what they’re going to talk about. Can you be on the call, those were the relation. The Partnership.

Ramsey Russell: What about those first couple of weeks? And say a week before Texas shut down on March 6. Did it ever cross your mind? That hey, that is kind of scary. This ain’t a good place to be two years in the start.

Kevin Miller: It made me, it did make me nervous for sure. But I don’t think anybody saw the brakes to a screeching halt, and so absolutely with my partners and I were,

Ramsey Russell: Nobody saw the wall of the world until they hit it.

Kevin Miller: That’s right. So my partners and I mean we were nervous, we talked about, hey, things are going to change, but we’ll adapt we’re small, we’re flexible, nimble we’ll adapt to it. We have relationships, partnerships, but we thought we’d have some time to see where it was going. And we were very, very blessed that when that wall, when we hit it. It didn’t take a second time to jump over it.

Ramsey Russell: I just thought that was a great story. Hear you say that at dinner. What would you tell anybody considering this package? You’re considering coming to Mexico?

Kevin Miller: Do it. Absolutely. I mean, it’s just been fantastic and when you ask my favorite hunt, I mean, that’s a hard question because there are all so different.

Ramsey Russell: You all stand along unique to shoot pin tail, go over here and shoot brant over here and shoot puddled ducks, go over here and shoot Mexican ducks, go ahead and shoot white wing dove. But, is there any truth that Chris got your band?

Kevin Miller: So Chris got his band, Al got a band.

Ramsey Russell: No, Al wanted, they got the questionable band.

Kevin Miller: Well, no. I mean, I’ll just say I was on the far left side of the blind with four guns and the three groups of brants, I shot the far left bird. And when he picked up the far left bird and said I got one. Now water is moving, right? So I’m going to say maybe those ducks switch places. But Al got a band, we’ll just leave it at

that.

Ramsey Russell: Were you running to the band? His first band.

Kevin Miller: And guess what? I’ve never had a band ever. In 25-28 years of duck hunting. But Al got his first band and I’m happy for him. Oh and by the way I’m his customer in the business we’re in. So yeah, so I’m really happy for him that he got a band. Can’t wait to see it on the wall in his office.

Ramsey Russell: Kevin, thank you, had a good time with you this week and thank you very much for your business and I look forward to hunt with you again sometime.

Kevin Miller: No, thank you man, it’s been awesome.

Ramsey Russell: Mr. Henry Falmer from, it’s good to share camp with the home team from Mississippi. You all had a good time down here?

Henry Falmer: We had an absolute blast.

Ramsey Russell: Tell me about it, tell me how you Obregon vacation went?

Henry Falmer: Well, it was the perfect end to the sorriest duck season ever had in 47 years.

Ramsey Russell: Boy ain’t that the truth. But it was a great exclamation point to it. We came down here and had a great mixture of different types of hunting, lots of different species. I think we killed 10, 11, 12 different species, brants killed a couple of banded ducks. We just had we just had a terrific time.

Ramsey Russell: Why did you all, why did you choose this hunt?

Henry Falmer: Because it wasn’t Argentina. We like the duck in dove combo a little closer, a little cheaper.

Ramsey Russell: And its familiar species I think, you know that means a lot to me coming here.

Henry Falmer: Well it is and we’re particularly interested in getting the cinnamon teal that we don’t get at home. And the brant, I got both of those. So it was great to see different habitats and see different, some different species, but a lot of similar ones too.

Ramsey Russell: Yesterday. We shared a good hunt together. You and I did pass shooting blue bills. And that is one of my favorite hunt. We shoot puddle duck, mallards, cinnamon teal, I mean all the stuff, the brant that dove, we were talking, the two young guys put us to old soul together the blind. We talked about, I love you to ring that look. Yeah, I do too. Cause they’re fun. And that was a fun hunt yesterday. And you told me something about how the friendship and the bond with your sons and everything because of duck hunt.

Henry Falmer: That’s true. I sit around sometimes think about all the time and the money and effort I put into duck hunting over the last 40, 50 years and I think what do I do this? And then I look around and the experiences that I’ve shared with my son, guy and his friend Taylor, other friends of his, my nephews, friends of mine and just the memories, the bonds that you build, I have a completely different relationship with his friends and my nephews, then I would ever have if we didn’t have this common passion that we share.

Ramsey Russell: I know, it’s just blind life matters. It’s something about being in that environment, doing something you love and the conversations and relationships and I, people tired of hearing me say it, but I can look at any duck I’ve ever shot on the wall and I start telling a story about, it always goes back to people, always, there’s always people involved with that story. Last question, what? When you’re sitting back next year, you’re sitting in the recliner this summer when you’re thinking back in the memory bank and think of this hunt. What was one thing you remember the most? First thing come to mind. What was one thing you’ll just, you’ll never forget one moment?

Henry Falmer: Oh, it’s hard to narrow it down to one. But, if I had to, it would probably be seeing that big string of brant come sailing now, snaking across the water kind of low fell into the blind, just perfect. We unload on them and knock mine down out of that out of that group and it was just spectacular, way to end Obregon trip and the duck season in particular.

Ramsey Russell: Brant will do that to you on it.

Henry Falmer: That’s our first experience with brant. It was delightful, really appreciate you all putting us on.

Ramsey Russell: No, I thank you all for coming Henry. It’s been a pleasure hunt we already and I hope we see each other more back home now that we know each other.

Henry Falmer: Hope we do. Thank you.

Ramsey Russell: Gap farmer from Madison, Mississippi?

Gap farmer: Madison, Mississippi.

Ramsey Russell: How did you, how did we all end up from I mean basically 15 minutes apart, didn’t know each other personally or duck hunters. I mean your dad found out we dove hunting on the same field for years but I didn’t really get to meet. How do we all end up here together? What led you to Obregon?

Gap farmer: Man, I don’t know, probably my buddy, Taylor Smith over here, that’s going to have the mic next. He’s big on social media. He keeps up with you on social media and I’m not on it, but been a lifelong bird hunter in my whole life.

Ramsey Russell: Your daddy took you duck hunting. I mean a long, long.

Gap farmer: I was three years old, just caring to be going out there.

Ramsey Russell: I enjoyed, we all four rode together out to the field and it gave us a long time to visit and tell a story. And I learned a lot about all you all, and it just means a lot, as a daddy to be with fathers and sons and on this kind of environment. What was your favorite part, your favorite hunt if you have one. I mean every time I saw you smile was outside your face, white winged doves could come in when you walked into camp out that shoot brant, you got your cinnamon teal. Banded blue bill.

Gap farmer: I think my favorite hunt, just three of us went on the hunt, me, Taylor, Henry and we, that’s I think every kid’s first hunt is probably dove hunt. It kind of goes way back. So those hot delta, some fire fields, but we step in the hot corner, come off, coming to and from the water source in the feedlot and it was just burn them up. And that’s then with my favorite hunts. It’s a dove hunt. And we just my best duck hunt ever with my dad and just watching him and me just frantically low shells into a gun, like madman was just.

Ramsey Russell: The weather was beautiful. It’s not like the golden hot like the olden days.

Gap farmer: Never sweat. Didn’t break a sweat. It was 80º didn’t break a sweat. Just it was awesome.

Ramsey Russell: And not but about a bazillion white wings.

Gap farmer: I’ve never seen anything like it.

Ramsey Russell: What’s your other favorite hunt? We all asked the same thing, I ask your daddy, when you when you think back about this in home,

Gap farmer: It’s going to be the brant? I came down here for the brant. I don’t know when I fell in love with them just reading articles about them to kind of read, the only 300,000 the Pacific Brant population. So it’s real rare. I don’t know how anybody that’s ever shot one.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, it’s been a pretty good year. We used to actually sell this hunt as a brant combo. And the brant hunting 70 years ago was nothing short of spectacular. It make your mind, it just blow your mind. Man the last few years they just we’ve actually had some biologists on talking about how they just don’t come as far south, like they used to some do, but a lot of them hold back north and this year was good. And here we are the last day of the year. And you would only guys in camp want them. You all went out and I just said be patient, be patient, be patient, you all going to get them be patient.

Gap farmer: I echoed those words several times in the hunt. The first place we set up just had a few paths kind of out of range never gave us a real look, so be patient, be patient. We moved one time and man, it was on just like you said like it can turn like a flip of a switch. And we got three groups coming just right we’re done in 20 minutes.

Ramsey Russell: When you shot your cinnamon teal, did you recognize them as drake cinnamon teal before pulling trigger?

Gap farmer: Pretty easy, the sun at the back and they came in. They were dark. It was pretty obvious.

Ramsey Russell: Is this your first time out of the country?

Gap farmer: Cancun, when I was 18.

Ramsey Russell: Cancun. First duck hunt out of the country. How did reality reconcile with what you might have been thinking coming down here? And I mean, what were you thinking about Mexico? And what did you think?

Gap farmer: I love the happy people. I wasn’t expecting to see the poverty that I saw down here, but everybody’s happy. I wasn’t expecting everybody to be friendly.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, they’re friendliest they can be. And they’re relative to America they’re poor. But they’re simple. I mean they’re just hard working and are simple and working.

Gap farmer: Everybody’s friendly. Just everybody’s happy.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, we were all way off the beaten path, out in some of those little native Indian villages and stuff like that and they’re just simple people, but how do you feel safe wise and everything else?

Gap farmer: Felt great. Your frank staff here just, made us feel real comfortable. I had some anxiety, but it was smooth. Yeah, it’s just awesome.

Ramsey Russell: Good. I appreciate you all being here gap. I really enjoyed it.

Gap farmer: Thanks for having us.

Ramsey Russell: Good to know. You know, hope to share a duck blind, with you somewhere in the United States. I’m sure we all will.

Gap farmer: We will.

Ramsey Russell: Taylor Smith. The one and only.

Taylor Smith: How you doing, Ramsey?

Ramsey Russell: Been a heck of a week, been fun, had it

Taylor Smith: Yeah, to say the least.

Ramsey Russell: What led you to Obregon, Mexico?

Taylor Smith: The next adventure. I was introduced to duck hunting about 17 years ago by a guy’s dad Henry.

Ramsey Russell: Tell that story.

Taylor Smith: Man, public land, high school friend, middle school friends growing up, I’ve seen all this duck hunting pictures. I grew up a deer hunter in Alabama. I’m from Auburn, Alabama. And I finally got the invite. You want to go duck hunting? No questions asked. Yes. When are we leaving? No clue what I’m doing, bought a hand spray painted Remington 870 from my uncle, drove 5.5 hours to Madison, Mississippi. Met him there for the first time, never met his dad. We’re going to hunt public land in the morning, we’re going to shoot Teal, What the hell’s a teal? So still my most fond memory of duck hunting, we get, you got a good little drive to the public land spot we go. To this day still remember the smell of that two stroke Yamaha motor, he cranked up to this day. He might have cranked it with dental floss and a toothbrush because it was just a finicky old motor but I’ll never forget it. Give me the spotlight said, all right you’re in charge of us not hitting anything man, just a little bit of pressure. But we’re cruising down the lake, there’s coots and I didn’t, it was a duck to me, I’d never been before, and it was the most we get set up, never been in waiters before.

Ramsey Russell: It must have been a big pair of waiters.

Taylor Smith: They’re very big, I couldn’t borrow those from anybody. Nobody had a size 13.

Ramsey Russell: What was your first duck?

Taylor Smith: A blue winged teal in early teal season.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah it hooked right then.

Taylor Smith: Right then.

Ramsey Russell: How did Mexico duck hunting measure up to your past? It’s different down here, but how did it measure up?

Taylor Smith: It is. Me and Guy kind of pride ourselves on being public land hunters. I’ve never done trip that like this. This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. And in its own way this is one of the most memorable duck hunting trips I’ve ever had in my entire life. Something I’ll never forget probably sharing it with two guys that introduced me to duck hunting being the main thing. I mean just hanging out like old times, life happens.

Ramsey Russell: But actually shooting ducks. I’m making this tough to do [**00:58:35].

Taylor Smith: It is. So I mean, it’s just it was all brand new to me, everything from day one from stepping into the wonderful lodge, the wonderful staff, the wonderful people, it was all new experience, everything was new. I’m used to sleeping in Holiday Inn eating gas station breakfast and drinking monsters on the way to go hunt, who knows what’s going to happen. Scouting all day, hoping for two good hunts out of a week-long trip to come down here and from day one, just step into waterfowl paradise.

Ramsey Russell: Give me a bullet point list of highlights for the week. Give me a real bullet point. You home and see your wife, what the first five things you’re going to tell her about down here.

Taylor Smith: She’s so damn tired of hearing me talk about a cinnamon teal, I’m going to show her the picture of cinnamon teal, you’ve seen pictures of them. I’ve seen one but I’ve never laid hands on one, to see it for the first time in hand, the colors, everything about it was just, it was actually more than I thought it would be. It was incredible. The different species that, the Mexican mallard being so similar to. It’s just a mallard. I mean the way they decoy, the way they act it was just you know that felt like home, they’re doing that. So the brant, the dove hunt. It was, the food. I never miss a meal. The culture, I mean just meeting the people. They’re wonderful. I can’t say enough good things about it. I really can’t. It was a wonderful change of pace.

Ramsey Russell: What do you think, because we think of up in the States we think of getting bundled up in cold weather and neat and cold push man here, we are down here hunting. It’s a little chilly to me from Mexico 50º in the morning. But then it warmed up to the eighties and it was just wonderful, one hot one Cold?

Taylor Smith: Hunting in this kind of weather, will ruin you because you’re not, if you’re hunting this weather in the south, you’re not killing any ducks. But you can kill them down here in shorts if you want to. I don’t think I broke a sweat the whole time but also never got cold though. It was literally the perfect temperature, sunshine, wind, the whole entire trip.

Ramsey Russell: And it’s kind of funny that one of your highlights, your bullet point highlights was not your first band. Is that because somebody else might have shot it?

Taylor Smith: No, it was mine. Like I said 17 years and it was the first one ever, you got me good though. I’m glad I had sunglasses on because my eyes were the size of dinner plates. Because I thought you were going to tell me it was yours. And I was like, oh shit, I already reported it. What do we get in hindsight?

Ramsey Russell: In hindsight. When that boat, we had a boat out there picking up the birds that currently gripping them. And after it passed by heading your way, I told Henry, I said, man, we should have grabbed about five of them birds and cut the foot off. And he said, no, that’d be just cruel.

Ramsey Russell: That would have been. Like I said, I don’t, I’m never crossed my mind about a band and I think it’s funny that I told you that earlier this week and then bam, I shoot my first one. I’m excited.

Ramsey Russell: I’m proud of you guys I really am. And I sure enjoyed hunt with you three. I’m really have enjoyed spending time with you and don’t believe what a small world it is.

Taylor Smith: It is.

Ramsey Russell: And I know we’re all going to share time to blind together and thank you all for being here.

Taylor Smith: Thank you for having us.

Ramsey Russell: Mr. Brentwood, head knocker of the Tejano boys down here in Obregon. How we’re doing this morning?

Brentwood: Doing good. Doing fine.

Ramsey Russell: What a great trip. Good time.

Brentwood: Good group of guys.

Ramsey Russell: Looks like you all had a good time.

Brentwood: We had a good time. Good shooting, good birds, good entertainment down here. Yeah, it’s quite the adventure.

Ramsey Russell: How would you how would you describe this hunting adventure to anybody listening that would consider coming down here. What would you say? What was your fondest memory or whatever? You had a good time.

Brentwood: For guys, who like high volume shooting, this is definitely, I’ve never done the Argentina trip, that you guys host. I’ve been down there to do some dove hunting but never done the ducks, but and if you want to shoot some birds, have a good time. Mexico is definitely bucket list for sure.

Ramsey Russell: What were some of your some of your bullet points, high points of your trip? What were some of the high points of the last four days?

Brentwood: The high points, I would say morning hunt. I mean they’re incredible down here. You get set up, it’s not a lot of effort, it’s not a lot of hiking, boating, in and out, trucking, calling decoys they set it up very nice. You pretty much walk in, grab a gun, grab your bucket and you’re shooting from sun up to 10 o’clock and it’s just, I would say that’s high point, like I said in the beginning guys that like high volume shooting, that’s the high point.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. You shot dove, you shot ducks, you all shot some brant one morning.

Brentwood: We did. We shot two banded brants, which was pretty incredible. I personally never shot a banded duck and I’ve hunted all over and this was my first band. So that was cool.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. And you and I were talking kind of last night at dinner. To me, there were 10 or 11 of us here in this camp. It was a great team of folks. We had folks from all over. We had Texas, we had South Carolina. Everybody got along real good. You notice that we all just kind of click you point out, it was all Southern boys.

Brentwood: It was all Southern boys except for one guy. But he fit in just fine. He fit in just fine. He just fit in just fine.

Ramsey Russell: We had a good time. We sure did Brent. I appreciate you all and hope we get to do this again sometime.

Brentwood: Absolutely. Ramsey, thanks for having us out here.

Ramsey Russell: Mr. John Esposito from Connecticut. We all think of you being from Boston. Is it any relation?

John Esposito: No, just hunt up there a lot.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. And we actually had some common ground before we met down here on this trip with the late Adam smith. What a great guy that guy was. We’ve had a lot of good story about him. I wish I could have got him on this podcast because he’s such an excellent storyteller.

John Esposito: Now he had some unbelievable stories. He’s quite, they don’t make people quite old and salty like he is.

Ramsey Russell: No. Old and salty Captain Adam smith. But nonetheless, you called us up kind of late in the spring this year and said, hey, I’ve been thinking about going down to Mexico. And we had a spot right here on the very last week. How would you describe this hunting trip to anybody back home that was thinking about coming to Mexico?

John Esposito: I mean, for myself, it was the experience of a lifetime. I would have to say. I came down here to collect some species for my collection and really get the whole experience. It was, being here witnessing how fertile this valley is and how pretty the scenery is. It was really, truly was a great experience. The gunning was probably the best gunning, I’ve had in my life.

Ramsey Russell: How did it compare to Connecticut?

John Esposito: It doesn’t compare.

Ramsey Russell: We know just some of the little things like you and I actually shared a blind a few days and the shovelers, the Gadwalls, the wigeons, the blue wings, the green wings, you aren’t used to see them that spectacularly colored.

John Esposito: No, we don’t get them like that. Absolutely not. The variety of species down here was second to none. I have to say.

Ramsey Russell: What about the dove hunting? Do you all dove hunt up home, back home?

John Esposito: They don’t allow dove hunting in Connecticut. So we do some tower shoots. But I’d have to say that the dove hunting was the second to the ducks was a highlight of my trip. I love wing shooting. I saw, I mean if I didn’t see hundreds of thousands of doves, I didn’t see any.

Ramsey Russell: Well you kind of crammed a lifetime of not dove hunting up in the northeast into a couple of days. I heard you shot a few shells.

John Esposito: I did. I think I shot 13 boxes a day.

Ramsey Russell: How’s your shoulder feel?

John Esposito: It feels good.

Ramsey Russell: What was your, you get back home, you’re sitting in a recliner and a couple of months and you think back to Obregon. What’s going to be some of, one thing that’s going to stick out? And you go, what do you think one memory that you’ll carry back home, but you just never forget.

John Esposito: I’d have to say that I came down here by myself not knowing anybody, and by the time midweek came I felt like I’ve been hunting with all these guys in my whole life.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, something about hunting lodges like this that do that. We put together these hosted trips and we get what I call pairs and spares, just singles and couples and a lot of guys, they just don’t have a close network of friends that are willing or able to come on these trips. But what a great place to meet people. I mean, I would bet the next time you got ready to do this, you call Scott. You have been going here there.

John Esposito: You could call my boys from South Carolina.

Ramsey Russell: Your boy from South Carolina here.

John Esposito: Yeah. Even though I’m a Yankee, they said they’ll shoot with me though.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah, well I sure enjoyed having you down here and I appreciate it. And the food was good? You like it?

John Esposito: The food was excellent. They went so far out of their way to accommodate us on every venture, whether it was putting us on the birds, trying to get the birds up. The effort that they put in was 10,000%. The staff down here was working I think probably 17 hours a day to put this thing together.

Ramsey Russell: Yeah. I like to think there’s a staff of about 30 and they, I have been up at 02:30 AM to get a glass of water and heard something and looked out here on the and somebody’s detailing the trucks and sorting through the ammo shell, they’re doing something there. It’s just around the clock while we’re still in bed. The airboat staff is getting up at midnight or 01:00 o’clock and driving out in the field to get the blind to get the decoy to get everything put into place and it’s around the clock effort and all we have to do is show up.

John Esposito: That was special because I’m used to having to do all the work myself. So I know what it’s all about and it was a real pleasure to get taken care of. It was first class and I would say it was so far has been the trip of my lifetime. It was very special. The valley, It was one of the most beautiful places, the agriculture, the people

Ramsey Russell: We talked about that remember, how that first day that first morning me, you and Scott went to a blind and it was kind of in between wheat fields where all the water collected and it’s been wet so long, it turned into natural marsh. But then if you get just off the wheat field, you’re in Sonora desert, just sand and scrub and cactus.

John Esposito: With the mountains in the background. The green fields for as far as the eye could see, it was probably the scenery was second to none. And the way those birds are responding that morning when we went in there, I mean that was what I dreamed Mexico was going to be like.

Ramsey Russell: I knew when we got there and it was knee deep water of natural mud bottom marsh. First thing I said to myself a cinnamon teal we’re going to see cinnamon teal. We saw cinnamon, pin tails. That was probably my favorite hunt of the entire two week period. The quality and the scenery and the friendship and camaraderie and everything else. Last topic was, I’ve been coming down here John for a long time and like in between groups, I might take a day off and go eat seafood to go to the local restaurant. But you always see all these little taco stands. I mean just the real native blue collar everyday man’s and I like that kind of food. And what’s going on with that little dirt road town and then bring in Adelaide bottom meats and selections and let’s eat those tacos until we’re about to pop. That was probably one of the best meals I’ve had all year.

John Esposito: No, I agree. It was authentic Mexican food. I’ve never had that at home.

Ramsey Russell: Did you try one of the serrano peppers or is it a little too spicy?

John Esposito: No, I tried one and it burned for me. I’m from the north. I’m not used to that. But I tried.

Ramsey Russell: John I appreciate, I really, really appreciate getting hunt with you. And you’re being down here and I know that I’m going to share blind with you again in Connecticut and elsewhere.

John Esposito: Absolutely. I’d like to also say that the, since the COVID started, this has been the most normal that I felt for one week. It really, truly has been a true treasure.

Ramsey Russell: We had some guys, we did have almost like 10 to a dozen people reschedule their trips for fear. This COVID has really gotten in, people’s head it’s really gotten up and it bothers me how, yeah, I mean, we got to move on, and I think they regretted, it was one of the best season we’ve ever had down here and Obregon. And for me personally, it felt normal.

John Esposito: And I felt safe and I didn’t feel, and then there was a sense of normalcy that I haven’t felt in a long time.

Ramsey Russell: Thank you John.

Ramsey Russell: Divan Wood team Tejanos here in Obregon Mexico. Tell me about your trip, man.

Divan Wood: Well, I’ll tell you what we had a great trip. It was definitely a good way to end the season. We didn’t have too much of a great shooting season this year down in Texas. But I’ll tell you what it’s definitely a hell of a way to end the season down here.

Ramsey Russell: It’s your first time to Mexico?

Divan Wood: Yeah. First time in Mexico. And it definitely won’t be my last will be back, for sure.

Ramsey Russell: What was your favorite parts of the trip?

Divan Wood: I’d probably say the cinnamon teal shoot that we had one morning on the freshwater ponds. We were able to get about a dozen of them. That’s kind of the reason why we came down here. And so being able to accomplish that was pretty good.

Ramsey Russell: There was a lot of cinnamon teal everybody that wants one gets one. What about the brant? Were you one of the ones who got the band or somebody else?

Divan Wood: Yeah, I was, we actually got a couple of that morning. We ended up shooting about, I think 10 or 11 of those on the brackish water. And there was two bands that were shot that morning. And actually one of them was double banded. It was pretty neat. That’s good.

Ramsey Russell: You know, a lot of people think about coming to Mexico and the stereotype and whatever the danger of the dirty, what would you tell them about coming to Mexico?

Divan Wood: I mean, I’d say don’t worry about it. It was one of those deals that it was such a very streamlined, easy in, easy out. Travel was very easy, very safe, being at the lodge was very safe. I mean, heck we even walked around town and went to a bar and a restaurant with one of the guys here, slept down there and stuff and so yeah, I wouldn’t, I would say not worry about it all. I mean, I felt very comfortable the whole time when we were here.

Ramsey Russell: You all got a whole bunch of birdies, you all are taking home, going to get some good taxidermy.

Divan Wood: Absolutely, I think we got about, I don’t know, 12 or 15, we’re going to take back with us.

Ramsey Russell: I couldn’t tell when a three you all were hunting together over there. If you all enjoy the white wing dove hunting or not.

Divan Wood: I tell you what that was the best dove hunt I’ve ever been on. We really, we got after him and so that was a really fun hunt too, we did that twice, we did that the first. First afternoon and the last afternoon and it definitely was a great way to end the trip. And if we’d come back again, like I said, we will probably will. Then I definitely look forward to doing that again.

Ramsey Russell: Good deal. Divan we appreciate you being here, folks, we appreciate you all listening to this episode of duck season somewhere. See you next time.