‘Shoulda put a ring on it’: Steelhead caught with a wedding ring

Imagine your own tale for this tale of a steelhead with a wedding ring strapped to its tail.

Jim Nelligan and friends were fishing Lake Michigan Friday when they boated a steelhead and, mystery of mysteries, a wedding ring was strapped around the narrow part of the fish by the tail.

“So, we caught this steelhead today,” Nelligan emailed. “Someone attached their wedding ring to this fish and we caught it. Wonder if it was a divorce or death, but a crazy story!’’

Fish ring story

UPDATE: The love-lost story behind the ring

It didn’t take long to uncover how a fish found itself tied to a wedding ring. Here’s the story.

For the nitty gritty of the ring, Nelligan emailed, “Had an inscription of SDH Steel on the ring.”

Nelligan was fishing on his boat, “Grey Lion II,” by the R4, the famous buoy east of Chicago’s north suburbs. They were fishing for lake trout with four colors of leadcore line with a Blue Dolphin spoon in 105 feet of water. Joe Penar caught the fish with John Massard netting it. Bob Nichols was another crew member.

In other words, they were doing some normal June fishing when something completely abnormal happened.

As Nelligan put, “crazy story.” It’s the kind of crazy that leads to imagining tales.

I imagine a guy at Wrigley Field calling over a roving camera crew while he gets down on one knee and asks a young woman to marry him and she says no. Instead of hurling the ring far out into Lake Michigan, he decides it needs to be sent packing, symbolically, strapped to the tail of a cold fish.

Imagine your own tale. Or, if you know the real story, let me know.

And heed the immortal words of Beyoncè in “Single Ladies,” “If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it.” Her video of “Single Ladies” is worth viewing if you’ve never seen it before.

Provided by Jim Nelligan