A group of fishermen in Mississippi are being hailed as heroes after saving 38 dogs on the verge of drowning in a lake.

Three fishermen were on a fishing trip in Lake Grenada. Bob Gist – a 61-year-old from Arkansas – went fishing with his friend Brad Carlisle from Tennessee.

Suddenly, the men heard more than three dozen dogs barking.

Gist told Fox News, "Pretty soon we saw some dogs on the horizon in the water."

Fishing guide, Jordan Chrestman, noticed that the dogs were in the water after chasing a deer into the lake.

Gist later learned that the dogs were part of an annual fox run that takes place in the area.

Gist stated, "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.'"

The boat navigated Lake Grenada to get close enough to the dogs.

"We're just flabbergasted because it’s dogs everywhere," Gist explained. "They’re all going in different directions because they can no longer see the bank on either side."

Gist added, "They were on the verge of drowning because now they have been treading water for an hour."

The fishermen loaded 27 dogs into the boat and took them to shore. Then they went back and rescued 11 more for a total of 38 dogs rescued.

He noted, "We got back over to the ramp with that last bunch of dogs… [and] we were having to drag them out of the boat because they didn't want to get out of our boat. They were scared they were going back to the water. It was terrible."

Gist continued, "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. 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."

Gist pointed out that Chrestman was the true hero of the dog rescue.

"If Brad and I had been there in a boat by ourselves, we wouldn't have known anything was wrong, but that 20-something-year-old kid – I'm 61, so I'm calling him a kid – he knew something needed to be done," Gist said.

The dog owners were reportedly thankful for the fishermen saving their dogs from drowning in the lake. The dog owners offered money to Chrestman as a reward for saving the dogs, but he allegedly refused to accept the money.

Gist posted a photo of the 27 dogs riding in his boat on his Facebook page.

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