We’ve probably all heard a fish story or two in our life and if we are a fisherman, we have likely told them as well. It seems as if this fish story, however, has a ‘ring’ of truth attached to it and it left a group of fishermen in Michigan wondering what was going on.
“It was crazy,” Jim Nelligan told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors. “We started wondering who did this, and why?”
It wasn’t long before the story behind the story came to light.
Capt. Jason Rose is apparently responsible for the wedding band. According to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times, he caught a steelhead on May 4 on the other side of the lake near Port Whitehall, Michigan. He then attached the wedding band to the fish and set it free. He and his wife had been married for almost 10 years when they decided to split.
“I am a fishing guide; she was always against me following my dreams and hated how much I fished,” Rose told the Sun-Times.
“Four years went by since our divorce. I felt I needed to get rid of that ring, but I didn’t want to just toss it to the bottom, pawn it or any of that kind of thing. So I released it the best way I know how. I am convinced that ring is cursed. My life has been nothing less than great since I released it.”
The ring showed up about seven weeks later when Joe Penar reeled in the fish during the Pass the Passion fishing tournament. They were near the R4 when they were fishing, which is a famous Buoy east of the North suburbs in Chicago.
“The fish made several jumps out of the water when we caught it, so it seemed normal for a steelhead,” Nelligan told For The Win Outdoors. “When we first saw it we wondered if it was some kind of DNR [Department of Natural Resources] tag initially, but then we saw it was a wedding ring.”
The wedding band is silver with one diamond in it and the inscription, “SDH Steel.”
“I didn’t know steelhead get married,” crew member John Massard quipped upon seeing the wedding ring.
When Rose heard about the fish and the ring showing up again, he was rather surprised. He said “none of us can believe someone caught it.”
Nelligan, or the other hand, was not surprised when the ring showed up.
“That was my first guess, a divorce, but funny that the guy says the ring is cursed,” Nelligan told For The Win. Because, “That ring is cursed. Ever since it came on my boat, I’ve had problems with my Glendinning engine controls, the switch to raise the helm floor to get at the engines broke and the hose at my dock burst. Sheesh!
“I think we’ll mail it back to him, no return address!”