Fishermen Rescue 38 Dogs From Middle of Lake

Insurance agents out for a day on Mississippi's Grenada Lake made the surprising find
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 22, 2024 10:00 AM CDT
They Went to Catch Fish, Caught 38 Dogs Instead
Fisherman Brad Carlisle, left, and fishing guide Jordan Chrestman bring one of three boatloads of dogs back to shore after they were found struggling to stay above water far out in Mississippi's Grenada Lake.   (Bob Gist via AP)

Two friends from Arkansas and Tennessee recently decided to meet up in neighboring Mississippi for a day of fishing, but what they ended up pulling into their boat had more fur than gills and fins. WMC and Fox News report that Brad Carlisle and Bob Gist, both State Farm insurance agents, recently headed to Grenada Lake with fishing guide Jordan Chrestman, and they weren't having much luck catching anything in the earlier part of the day. They moved to another spot, and "pretty soon we can hear some dogs barking," Gist tells Fox, adding that his group could see the pooches "on the horizon in the water."

As they pulled closer, the men were surprised to find dozens of "dogs everywhere," all wearing expensive GPS collars and with numbers painted on them, Gist tells the AP. "They were kind of swimming in circles and didn't know which direction to go." The men acted quickly, yanking the exhausted dogs one by one out of the water and into their bass boat. It took three trips back to shore to rescue all 38 dogs; by the time they'd finished their mission, some of the dogs had been treading water for 45 minutes to an hour. It turns out the dogs had been part of a fox hunt on land and had all leaped into the water while chasing a deer.

They were about a mile offshore, where their owners were frantically looking for them, when the fishermen stumbled upon the scene. Dogs can "follow game relentlessly, as in this case," Chris Gurner, a natural resource specialist with the US Army Corps of Engineers, tells the AP, though he adds it's not common for them to swim so far away from land. Gist is just glad they were where they were at the right moment. "Opportunities to help somebody are in front of us all the time," he says. "Sometimes if you see something, do something." (More uplifting news stories.)

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