Tunica, Mississippi - Beaver Dam Duck Hunting and Bird Hunting at The Willows
How Roscoe and Daisy Work
 Editor’s Note: Mike Mize of Holly Springs, Mississippi, hunting guide and director of The Willows Sporting Clays and Hunting Center at the Grand Casino in Tunica, Mississippi, takes out new groups of hunters to hunt quail and pheasant on The Willows Shooting Preserve each day. Mize has the most-unique pair of bird dogs you’ll ever hunt with, and these dogs remind me of the odd couple of stage and TV fame.
“I won’t have a dog that’s not staunch on point and stays locked-up like a granite statue in until the hunters arrive,” my dad, a longtime avid quail hunter, once told me. “At one time, I had a lemon-and-white pointer named Lady. She’d stay on point all day, if my getting a quail took that long. I lost Lady on a hunt once and didn’t find her until the following year. I went back to the same field we’d been hunting when I lost h er and found her bones piled-up in a heap. Not 10 yards in front of her, there were feathers and quail bones from the covey of quail that refused to move.” As a child, I believed this tall tale for many years.
The first time I saw Roscoe leave a point, and Daisy move up beside Roscoe and start pointing a covey of quail, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Then when Roscoe started pointing out in front of the Lab, I became totally confused. After Daisy flushed the covey, and we shot a few quail, I asked Mize how he’d taught the dogs this technique because I’d never seen anything before that strange.
“Daisy and Roscoe figured out this strategy by themselves,” Mize reveals. “When Roscoe was a  puppy, we hunted a lot of pheasants at a place in Holly Springs. The birds would run on me and Roscoe, and by the time the hunter and I reached the point, the pheasants might be 75-yards away. Daisy started hunting with Roscoe when she was a pup. Roscoe took it upon himself to point the pheasant and then swing around and get in front to block. Daisy learned to stay on point where Roscoe had been, whileRoscoeblocked the pheasant. I wish I could take credit for teaching the dogs this tactic, but to be honest, they learned it on their own. This was the most unique twist on bird hunting I’d ever seen, so I didn’t stop them from doing it.
“Some of my hunters appreciate this type of dog work. However, other hunters, especially old-time quail hunters, prefer to see a classic, staunch, pointing dog. I’ve learned that this technique Daisy and Roscoe have developed is deadly e ffective on quail, as well as pheasant, chukars or any other birds that run along the ground.” After Daisy flushed the quail, she’d work to retrieve the birds, freeing Roscoe to find the next covey. When I asked Mize why Roscoe didn’t retrieve, he smiled and said, “Roscoe’s a union dog; he only points and blocks. Anything else about the hunt has to be done by Daisy.”
Mize never has to walk out in front of hunters with guns. The dogs do all the work in front of the guns, and Mize works with his hunters to get them in position to take their shots and make sure the hunt’s conducted safely.
By bird hunting at The Willows, you can teach bird hunting to young and novice hunters, and everyone at any level can enjoy a thrilling bird-hunting experience. You’ll see plenty of birds and have plenty of opportunities to shoot and the chance to see the strangest pair of bird dogs work together.
For more information about Mize’s dogs and hunting The Willows, call Mike Mize at (662) 357-3154, or email him at mizem@grandcasinos.com. Go to www.visitmississippi.org or call 1-866-see-miss (733-6477) for more information on visiting Mississippi.
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