We arrived a few days early and spent time seeing the sites in Buenos Aires, which we enjoyed tremendously. We met up with Ramsey and the rest of our party on Monday morning, and made the trip to Las Flores, all eagerly anticipating starting our hunt. We arrived at the estancia to find a very comfortable and rustic brick lodge waiting on us, along with a table full of great food (a fine foreshadowing of things to come). Our accommodations were extremely comfortable, reminding me of any number of nice hunting camps I had been to stateside. Flocks of ducks, doves and pigeons flew by the picture windows in the dining room, reminding us of why we were there.
After a great lunch and time to unpack, it was finally time to hunt! Ducks were everywhere, and it was amazing to see so many different species that I had previously only ever seen in books or photos. In less than 2 hours, we had accumulated our limit and could barely believe the quality of the hunting. Little did we know, this was just a warm-up for the morning hunts!
For the next 4 days we had the most unbelievable hunting anyone could ever imagine. Hunting styles varied based on location and conditions, ranging from standing in head high tule grass shooting decoying and passing birds to standing blinds in the middle of large waterholes to even layout blinds on the sides of small potholes. All were equally effective, as every hunter limited every day...a true testament to the quality of the hunt and number of ducks. Yellow billed and white cheeked pintails, silver, ringed and speckled teal, chiloe wigeon, rosy billed pochards, whitefaced and fulvous whistling ducks, black headed ducks and of course red Ramzillas....a true duck hunters paradise.
The food was plentiful and worth the trip in and of itself. Ducks cooked every way you can imagine, Argentine beef and wine, ostrich, blackbuck backstraps....oh my. The only thing that could top the entrees were the desserts....Certainly, I know I tipped the scales a lot heavier when I returned!
My only regret was knowing that the Brown Dog was sitting at home, awaiting my return. To be sure, he had his head stuck to my suitcases for 2 solid days after I got back. Thankfully, he won't have to wait long before our season opens here.
If you have been wishing, maybe its time to pull the trigger...over and over!! Its duck season somewhere, you just have to find where!
Until next time,
Brown is Beautiful
