Fishermen in Mississippi pull off dramatic rescue of 38 dogs treading water

What started as a day on the water with a friend turned into a full-on rescue mission of 38 dogs.Bob Gist, 61, a State Farm agent in Arkansas, decided to go on a fishing trip with his friend Brad Carlisle, a State Farm agent in Tennessee, after not seeing each other for a while, Gist told Fox News Digital.The two men headed to Grenada Lake in Mississippi and got in touch with Jordan Chrestman, a local fishing guide, who led them out onto the water.After fishing in the early morning hours and not finding much luck, the group moved to a different location.“We go about a half mile or so from where we were to another place and we start fishing, and pretty soon we can hear some dogs barking,” Gist said.“Pretty soon we saw some dogs on the horizon in the water.”The dogs were part of an annual fox run that takes place in the area, Gist said he learned after the encounter.Chrestman noticed a deer in the water and the group of dogs were attempting to chase the animal.“We went on fishing for about 10 or 15 more minutes, and Jordan [Chrestman] said, ‘Hey guys, if you don’t mind, we really need to go check on those dogs because they’re way out there in that water,'” Gist said.Gist and Carlisle had Chrestman lead them over to the pups.Once the boat arrived on the scene, the three men were left stunned.“We’re just flabbergasted because it’s dogs everywhere, and they’re all going in different directions because they can no longer see the bank on either side,” Gist said.“And they’re all hunting dogs —  we can clearly see that because they have expensive GPS radio collars on them.”Without hesitation, the men took the dogs onto the boat so they wouldn’t drown.“We just immediately started calling dogs on the boat, you know, grabbed their collar and put them in the [bass] boat,” Gist said.The three fishermen grabbed as many dogs as they could and fit them on the boat before running out of room.Chrestman managed to gather 25 to 27 dogs, m...