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Man finds wakeboarder’s missing finger inside trout caught in Idaho lake

An unfortunate wakeboarding accident led to a very surprising discovery for one fisherman out on an Idaho lake.

When Nolan Calvin reeled in a trout on September 11 from Priest Lake, he made an unexpected discovery while cleaning the fish: a human finger.

According to The Spokesman-Review, Calvin put the finger on ice and called the local sheriff's office. After detectives took a print from the finger, they determined it was one of project manager Haans Galassi's digits.

When the sheriff called Galassi up, though, he didn't exactly sound shocked.

"The sheriff called me and told me he had a strange story to tell me," Galassi told The Spokesman-Review. "He said that a fisherman was out on Priest Lake, and I pretty much knew exactly what he was going to say at that point.

"I was like: Let me guess, they found my fingers in a fish."

Despite his nonchalant demeanor about the discovery, Galassi isn't in the habit of leaving his body parts strewn about Idaho lakes. The fingers ended up in Priest Lake after Galassi ran into trouble while wakeboarding there during a camping trip in June.

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While out on the board, Galassi's hand got caught in a loop in the slack line, which tightened before he could get his hand free. Galassi says he wasn't in much pain, but a look at his hand painted another picture.

"I pulled my hand out of the water and it had pretty much lopped off all four fingers," he said. "It was a lot of flesh and bone, not a lot of blood. I told my friends our camping trip is going to be cut short because I ripped my fingers off."

Despite losing all but half of his index and middle fingers, Galassi remained nonchalant about the incident.

When asked if his fingers could be reattached, Galassi replied: "I'm like no, I couldn't find them. They're gone, you know; they're fish food at the bottom of the lake."

And Galassi turned out to be correct. The trout containing his finger was caught about eight miles north of where he had his accident.

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The sheriff's office asked Galassi if he would like his finger back, but he declined. They say they'll hold on to it for a few weeks in case he changes his mind.

Somehow, I doubt Galassi or Calvin will ever think of "fish fingers" the same way again.