The Whopper of All "Big Fish" Stories

It was supposed to be a leisurely afternoon out on the lake. Two friends, a fishing guide, a couple of rods and a few hours to kick back and see what might be biting.

What they weren’t expecting was the haul they ultimately reeled in. You see, it wasn’t long into the venture when the trio spotted something unusual. Not a dog paddling in the middle of the lake, but multiple dogs. In fact, 38, to be exact.

The unexpected discovery happened when after receiving no bites, the trio decided to haul anchor and move to another fishing hole that was sure to be luckier. It was shortly after they rounded the corner of Mississippi’s Grenada Lake that they first thought they heard dogs barking - no big deal in a rural area for that particular county.

But a few minutes after casting out, they noticed a couple of dogs swimming in circles in the middle of the lake. Not close to shore as you might expect, but a fair distance out. Concerned, they drove the boat out to the middle of the lake to check on the pack of paddlers. The rest is history.

Says fisherman Gist, "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." It seems the dogs were of the hunting variety and the guide feels they almost certainly spotted a deer swimming nearby and decided the pursuit wouldn’t end on land. So, one after another, they jumped into the lake and started swimming.

The three fishermen immediately began to call the dogs over to their boat. And because each pooch was equipped with a GPS tracking collar, grabbing and dragging the exhausted pooches up and onto the vessel and safety, was made a lot easier.

No surprise, it didn’t take long for the rescuers to quickly fill their small bass boat and have to make a quick trip back to shore to unload the weary haul before heading back out to gather the remaining dogs.

Panicked owners had by then reached the shore and were busy doing a head count when one confirmed he had the GPS tracker that was monitoring the location of each dog.

He then accompanied the fishermen back out onto the lake and quickly helped the group locate and scoop up the remaining hounds - who were close to drowning after having tread water in circles for nearly an hour.

Is it me, or do you also think this group just scored the biggest "big fish" story of all time?