A fishing trip with friends is supposed to be a time to kick back and relax.
But one group ended up having the most memorable trip of their lives.
And a pair of fishermen ended up with a catch they never expected after this scary situation.
38 dogs rescued from a Mississippi lake during a fishing trip
State Farm Insurance agents Bob Gist and Brad Carlisle traveled in from out of state for a day of crappie fishing on Grenada Lake in Mississippi.
The pair hired Jordan Chrestman as a fishing guide to take them out on the 35,000-acre man-made lake.
Gist noticed something strange in the distance shortly after they got out onto the water.
“I think those are dogs!” Chrestman exclaimed.
They took the boat in closer and were shocked at what they found.
Dozens of hunting dogs were paddling aimlessly in the water with electronic collars.
The fishermen knew something wasn’t right because the dogs were too far from shore and many were struggling to keep themselves afloat.
“The dogs were at least a mile offshore,” Gist told Jonesboro Right Now. “The way their heads were in the water, there’s no way they could see the shore. They were dog paddling and completely lost.”
Gist knew that the dogs needed help so they sprang into action.
But they were in a small bass boat and more than three dozen dogs were struggling in the water.
A rescue mission begins to save dogs stranded in the lake
They began to scoop as many pooches out of the water as they fit into the bass boat.
27 dogs were ferried to shore and the boat was turned around to go out and get the rest.
Two more trips were made to grab the remaining dogs.
38 total dogs were rescued by the fishermen.
“[Brad] and I were just lucky enough to be in a boat with a guide that knew we needed to act, so we did,” Gist wrote on social media. “We all pulled dogs from the water and Jordan managed [the] recovery like he had done it before. He is the hero here.”
And the rescue was in the nick of time.
“By the time they got to the exhausted dogs, they could barely swim,” a post on social media said. “Bob told me they grabbed the last four dogs as they were sinking underwater.”
They discovered what happened after they completed the rescue.
The dogs were part of a fox hunt in Grenada, Mississippi but they ended up chasing a deer into the lake where they got themselves stuck a mile away from the shore.
Chrestman turned down a reward from the owners of the dogs after the rescue.
The fishermen joked that they ended up having a good catch during their fishing trip, just not the one they expected.
“Opportunities to help somebody are in front of us all the time,” Gist said. “Sometimes if you see something, do something.”
Read All About It will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
