Steelers Now
When not running routes and catching passes on the field, Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Michael Pittman Jr. enjoys a good fishing trip. Tom Van Atta, a Pittsburgh-area-based fisherman, recently shared a story about going out on the water with Pittman.
“Right after Mike got to town, he wanted to fish,” Van Atta said in a YouTube video. “That’s how I knew the guy was obsessed about fishing and that I knew I’d like him.”
High water levels in nearby rivers kept forcing them to push their trip back. Bored one day, Pittman reached out to Van Atta and asked if he’d wanna finally go out.
“I get there, and I see the river, and my stomach just dropped,” Van Atta said. “Standing next to it rather than just driving over bridges looking down on it, I’m like, ‘It is really bad.’ Where we launch the boats, it’s in a river, so the water’s usually moving a little bit, but at this time, the water’s hauling through this area so fast that it’s making an eddy behind the docks, which is just exceptionally high for this river.”
Van Atta sent Pittman a video of the water and said, ‘Man, it is worse than I expected. I don’t know if you wanna waste your time today.” Van Atta was hoping that Pittman would postpone once again.
“I knew it was kinda dangerous, honestly,” Van Atta said. “But he was pretty set on fishing that day.”
The pair planned on hooking some bass, maybe some walleye and trying for muskie during the evening. While aiming to catch some muskie, Van Atta thought Pittman might have gotten snagged on a log floating in the current.
“But it turns it out it was not a log. It was a muskie,” Van Atta said. “And it was a big muskie.”
As Pittman lured it in, Van Atta dropped a net and trapped the thrashing fish, which stretched over 48 inches. Van Atta was relieved that they’d caught it, but soon worried about Pittman holding the muskie.
“And the reason I say ‘problem’ there is because if I get cut up by a muskie, whatever,” Van Atta said. “I’ll throw some band-aids on it and nobody’s really gonna care. If he gets cut across his palm, on the other hand, then I don’t have to tell you what happens there.
“(The headline of) the Steelers wide receiver gets toothed by a muskie across his hand and loses use, I was thinking worst-case scenario.”
Van Atta, who was hoping Pittman would say no, fetched a glove for him. Van Atta schooled Pittman in how to hold the fish and “it worked out great,” Van Atta said. Pittman released it back into the murky waters as Van Atta snapped pictures on his phone.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: New Steelers WR Michael Pittman Jr. Makes Unexpected Pittsburgh Connection
