Wait… Is There REALLY A Hairy Trout In Michigan?

I saw a picture of a postcard pop up on my timeline on Facebook and immediately started laughing my butt off because I don't think I've ever seen anything as goofy as this.

The picture is from the Fred Bear Museum in Grayling and the front features an Alaskan Furbearing Trout.

It's friggin' Trout that is completely covered in fur.

The description of the creature is even funnier, as the museum continues to be in on the apparent joke:

The Alaskan Furbearing Trout is a zoological curiosity which is so rare that is to be practically non-existent. They are found only in water of zero-degree temperature. Their main diet is ice worms.

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If you haven't figured it out by now, this creature is as real as the Jackalope.

I don't know where the joke started or who came up with the idea to pretend like this was a real thing, but over the years it's become somewhat of an inside joke to fishermen. Even going so far as one year in Michigan that a local news channel aired a story claiming fishermen had caught one of these fish and were trying to figure out how it got that way, only to remind everyone in the end what day it was, April 1st.

I'm actually kind of glad this is a fake because taking one look at this creature all I can think about is this thing brushing against my leg in the water and literally makes me never want to go swimming again.