Trout caught with ring tied to tail at Lake Michigan – and the bizarre reason comes out

CHICAGO—Under a lake’s surface can be a pretty weird place and you never know what could be found. A fisherman taking part in a tournament named Joe Penar certainly reeled in a surprising haul when he caught a trout with a gold wedding band attached to its tail with a cable tie.

The Chicago Sun-Times picked up the story and interviewed Jim Nelligan, the owner of Grey Lion II, where Penar had been fishing from at Lake Michigan. Before the true story of the ring came out, the fishermen theorized what the strange reasoning behind the fish could be from being a Department of Natural Resources tracking device to a death or divorce.

In a follow-up story to the unusual catch, it was discovered that Capt. Jason Rose and his wife had recently gone through a divorce. Rose told Chicago Times-Sun his wife had never liked that he enjoyed fishing, so he finally decided to cut the band loose – on a steelhead. Supposedly, the ring had always been haunted, which further prompted Rose to rid himself of it. A few other news outlets had reported Nelligan also believed the ring to be host to a supernatural force; he mentioned his boat had not operated the same since the trout had been caught and hoisted aboard.

The story certainly became stranger as more details were unveiled, and some people said this might have been unusually cruel to the fish.

One person commented on a Facebook post: “I am anything but a animal activist. I hunt fish and trap also used to hound. I dont think it’s right for some pervert to be going around ziptieing things to wildlife. Its America tho so to each their own I reckon.”