Grenada, MS – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – June 9, 2024 – What started out as a day of hopeful crappie fishing turned into an incredible dog rescue for a Jonesboro man, his friend and their fishing guide.

Bob Gist, a long-time State Farm Insurance agent from Jonesboro and his State Farm agent friend Brad Carlisle of Covington, TN decided on Friday they would meet up in Memphis Saturday and take a trip to Grenada, MS (175 miles South of Jonesboro) for a day of crappie fishing on Grenada Lake.

Gist and Carlisle met up with crappie fishing guide Jordan Chrestman of Tri-Lake Guide Service and began what they hoped would be a productive day of fishing.

The trio hadn’t been on the lake long when Gist said he noticed something in the water a short distance away. “What is that out in the water?” Gist said. “I think those are dogs!” Chrestman yelled.

At that point Chrestman fired-up the boat motor and they moved toward what they believed were dogs. When they got close Gist says they discovered dozens of hound dogs all wearing expensive radio collars swimming in different directions. “They were lost. The dogs were at least a mile offshore. 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 said.

Chrestman pulled the boat up to each dog, and Gist and Carlisle loaded them one at a time into the boat. They loaded 27 dogs into the boat for the first load and took them to shore. They then went back and rescued 11 more. 38 dogs total were rescued.

“When we first started there was this white one that Brad tried to reach for and the dog bit at him. He moved closer to me, so I tried to reach for him, and he tried to bite me, so we left him.” Gist said. “When we came back for the second load it was probably 30-45 minutes later. By that time, he was ready to get in the boat. He wasn’t biting anybody.”

So, the big question was – why were there 38 (at least) hound dogs swimming and lost in the middle of the huge Grenada Lake? “It seems they were having some kind of a fox hunt and were running the hound dogs as part of that,” Gist said. “The dogs jumped a deer; the deer ran and jumped in the lake and ran off and left the dogs. The dogs kept trying to follow the deer and got lost.”

Gist said he didn’t personally know any of the dog owners. He said none of them had a boat, so if Gist and his friends hadn’t come along “the dogs may have all died,” Gist said. When asked if he knew whether or not any dogs drowned Gist said, “I don’t know. We were scared to ask. All I know is we rescued every dog we saw. Dog paddling and treading water for 45-60 minutes in the middle of the lake is a long time.”

Gist estimated there was probably $16,000 worth of electronic radio collars recovered from the lake, not to mention the value of the 38 hunting hound dogs.

When it was all over Gist said the hunters and dog owners tried to give them money for their effort. The guide turned down the offers and told them “When you see us in trouble, ya’ll come help us.”