Here’s one hell of a fishing story for you.
Often times when an angler reels in a fish, there’s a story attached to it. Fishermen (and fisherwomen) have to have plenty of “it was this big and jumped this high out of the water” stories to tell to their friends. What else would they talk about at the bar after a long day out on the water?
Jim Nelligan was out on Lake Michigan competing in a fishing tournament and, at one point, his group hooked a steelhead. They started to reel it, and noticed that the flopping fish had something in tow, as Nelligan told USA Today:
“The fish made several jumps out of the water when we caught it, so it seemed normal for a steelhead. When we first saw it we wondered if it was some kind of Department of Natural Resources tag initially, but then we saw it was a wedding ring. It was crazy. We started wondering, ‘Who did this, and why?'”
Well the story then got out that some anglers had caught a fish that was… apparently married. It was either that, or another fisherman somewhere out there had put the ring on the steelhead for specific reason. As it turns out, the explanation for the fish wedding ring ended up being the latter rather than former (I was really hoping it was married).
Captain Jason Rose had zip tied the ring to the fish a month prior in Whitehall, Michigan. The fisherman caught the steelhead, attached his wedding band to it, and then released it back into the water. Rose had been married for almost 10 years before he and his wife got divorced, and a number of years after the split, he decided to get rid of the ring in a creative way, telling the Chicago Sun-Times:
“I am a fishing guide. She was always against me following my dreams and hated how much I fished. 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.”
Pretty unorthodox way of getting rid of a wedding ring, but more power to Captain Jason Rose I suppose.
And as it turns out, there might be some truth to the band being cursed. Nelligan, the man who reeled in the fish, says that ever since he caught the steelhead with the ring attached, he’s had a number of issues with his fishing boat:
“That was my first guess, a divorce, but funny that the guy says the ring is cursed. 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.”
I’ll tell you how you could get rid of that ring Mr. Nelligan… strap it to a fish.
