There’s something about the first hunt that just feels different. It carries the weight of anticipation and the understanding that whatever happened last season is behind you and what this season becomes begins here and now.
For Cole Erdman, this trip to Mexico was a first – a bucket list moment and the start of his first World Slam. For Mike Tussey, it was a return and the start of the chase to his seventh. Two hunters, two perspectives and one trip that decides how the story of the 2026 season unfolds.
This year our season begins in the Yucatan - a place where the air hangs heavy with humidity, where limestone soil meets dense green canopy, and where the jungle wakes slowly in layers of sound. At El Halcon Lodge, days start early and end around long tables, where guides and hunters trade stories like old friends. It’s wild in the truest sense but welcoming in a way that makes you feel less like a visitor and more like part of something that’s been happening there for generations.
It’s a feeling that Mike (or as we all call him – Tussey) knows well. “That first time putting on camo and tying your boots – it’s like Christmas morning. Getting to your spot and watching the sun come up, hearing the jungle come alive - it’s when I know that the season has officially begun.”
For Cole, the ocellated turkey had always lived in that category every hunter understands - the ‘one day’ hunt. The kind of bird you talk about long before you ever step into its habitat. Just being on site was a thrill but that first morning carried something more. “As I got ready for the first day, I was excited, anxious, and ready to better understand how these birds behaved. I knew it would be different than the Easterns I’m used to, but I had no idea what was to come.”
Ocellated turkeys don’t gobble like Easterns, they have a distinct drum, one that cannot be replicated with the calls most hunters are used to. In Mexico, it is legal and commonplace for guides to bring recordings into the field that are played through a speaker – just another reminder that when you travel for the hunt you adapt to the land, not the other way around. The blind may feel familiar, but the bird does not.
Opening week meant the birds weren’t fully fired up and four hard days passed. Long sits, dense cover and close calls that dissolved back into green. For Tussey, that rhythm is part of the process knowing the World Slam isn’t built on easy. He’s completed three in a single season and come up short chasing others. He knows the grind, the road, the early alarms, the subspecies that slip through your hands. “It’s a long, grueling road,” he said, “with lots of ups and downs. When I tag that first bird, every moment of the hunt feels worth it. I feel incredibly blessed every time I’m there and this year, the jungle rewarded me with a beautiful bird to kick off my 2026 chase.”
For Cole, those four days tested patience with that first trip having a way of amplifying doubt. He knew that he was at the mercy of the jungle’s timing and on the fifth morning, it shifted. “That bird stepped out of the cover and into view with the color catching the light in a way that made me realize just what is so special about this hunt. It was an emotional roller coaster,” he continued, “but when it happened - all the waiting was worth it.”
“Right there in the field my guide Manuel and I shared the biggest hug. Not just over a tag filled, but over something earned. He sat with me for those five days - never wavering, never stressed – and in the end, we shared in that joy together. It was an amazing moment filled with adrenaline and relief all in one.”
While the trophy may be the goal, if you ask either man what their favorite part of the trip was, neither starts with the bird. It was the table at night, the stories, and the men gathered from different backgrounds, all bound by the same obsession with spring.
“These hunts are such a reward,” Cole said. “It’s where lifelong friends are made.”
Tussey echoed the sentiment simply: “The best part is the camaraderie.” He continued, “At El Halcon you’re not just a client, you become family. The owner Manual Enriquez and his staff create something deeper than a guided hunt, and that’s what pulls us back year after year.”
The season begins in places like this, where unfamiliar ground humbles you, where patience is sharpened, and where tradition is strengthened by who stands beside you. For Cole, it was the fulfillment of a long-held goal. For Tussey, it reaffirmed that the road, no matter how grueling, is worth walking again. And for both men it was the same truth: Turkey season doesn’t start when the calendar flips, it starts when you shoulder your pack, step into unfamiliar ground and choose to chase the pursuit wherever it leads. It starts when you choose to follow the path of the Nomads before you.
