A woman who had long given up finding her nose stud after losing it in the waters while kneeboarding, got the surprise of her life after it turned up inside a fish caught by her fiance.

Kristy Brittain, 25, of Magra, Tasmania said she never expected to see her stud again. However, to her surprise, it turned up three days later in one of the fishes caught by her fiance, Darren Triffett.

Brittain said Triffett and his friend Tim Hall went fishing in almost the same area where the stud was lost. When they were cutting off one flathead, they found the tiny nail-like object inside.

"They thought it was a little tack or nail," Brittain said. "I was standing near them talking to them and realized it was the nose stud I had lost in the ocean."

"How could it have ended in the fish? I suppose it would have sparkled and they eat pretty much anything. But you think how many fish are in the sea... and to catch this one," she added.