Arkansas fisherman Bob Gist pulls off a dramatic rescue of 38 dogs treading water in Mississippi

What started as a day on the water with a friend grew into a full-scale 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 went to Grenada Lake in Mississippi and contacted Jordan Chrestman, a local fishing guide, who led them onto the water.

After fishing in the early morning hours and not finding much luck, the group moved to another location.

“We go about a half mile from where we were to another place and we start fishing, and soon we can hear some dogs barking,” Gist said.

“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 after the meeting.

Chrestman spotted a deer in the water and the pack of dogs tried to chase the animal.

“We continued fishing for another ten or fifteen 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 . ,” said Gist.

Gist and Carlisle let Chrestman lead them to the pups.

When the boat arrived on the scene, the three men were left stunned.

“We’re just stunned because there are dogs everywhere, and they’re all going in different directions because they can’t see the bank on either side anymore,” Gist said.

‘And they’re all hunting dogs – We can clearly see that because they are carrying expensive GPS radio collars.”

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 collars and put them in the (bass) boat,” Gist said.

The three fishermen grabbed as many dogs as they could and placed them on the boat before they ran out of room.

Chrestman managed to gather 25 to 27 dogs and ensure that none of the pups tried to jump back into the water.

When the men returned the dogs to the bank, they found the owners panicking and calling for help, Gist said.

After rescuing the second group of dogs, a man on land told Gist and the others that he had the GPS tracker for the dogs and asked if he could help with the rescue.

The tracker led the other men to an additional group of three to four dogs that Gist estimated were more than a mile from the shore.

“They were about to drown because they’ve been treading water for an hour now,” Gist said.

“We went back to the ramp with that last group of dogs… (and) we had to drag them out of the boat because they wouldn’t get out of our boat. They were afraid they would go back to the water. It was horrible.”

The dogs’ owner tried to pay Chrestman, but he refused to accept the reward, Gist said.

Gist has labeled Chrestman as a true hero of dog rescue.

“If Brad and I had been there alone in a boat, we wouldn’t have known anything was wrong, but that 20-year-old boy – I’m 61, so I call him a child – he knew something had to be done.” , Gist said.

“That kid had the presence of mind to know, ‘If we don’t do something, there’s going to be 38 dead dogs here.’ And he saved them, I mean, we brought them all in, but that boy is the hero here.

Gist said that while he gives credit to Chrestman, he is grateful he helped in the mission to get the animals to safety.