Shanon Harbaugh of Twin Falls got a thousand dollars worth of jewelry from an unlikely place: an 11-inch trout.

When she landed a rainbow trout downstream from Centennial Park in Twin Falls during summer, she laughed at the metal tag on the fish’s lower jaw.

“I was thinking ‘Oh my gosh, you can’t even go fishing without things being pierced,’” Harbaugh said. “My daughter had been asking to get her lip pierced, and here my fish had one.”

The fish didn’t actually have a piercing, but a small metal band was clipped onto its lower jaw to identify it as a fish planted in the river by Idaho Power.

Harbaugh called the toll-free number posted on the band, and her name was entered into a drawing that recently won her $1,000.

Each year, Idaho Power stocks stretches of the mid Snake River with tens of thousands of rainbow trout every year. A limited number are fitted with jaw tags.

Twice a year (February and September), the company holds a drawing for anglers who report catching trout fitted with the jaw tags. The information helps Idaho Power monitor the trout-stocking program’s success and how many are caught by anglers.

People who catch jaw-tagged trout can call (800) 388-6011 and report the tag number along with the date of the catch and approximate location, their name, mailing address, telephone number, and whether the fish was kept or released.

Harbaugh released her fish, but held onto the tag number and later called in the information, which eventually netted her the thousand dollar prize.