Monsters of River & Rock: My Life as Iron Maiden’s Compulsive Angler

Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith got hooked on fishing as a child growing up in East London, plundering ponds and bomb craters on the Hackney Marshes for newts and sticklebacks, and catching perch from the Grand Union Canal while on outings with his father. And then things began to get more exotic. The young angling enthusiast grew up to become lead guitarist in one of the most successful rock bands in history, and started traveling the world playing to millions of fans. But once a fisherman, always a fisherman. The gear went with him; the fish got bigger; the adventures more extreme. Welcome to the world of Adrian Smith, as he clocks in to his day job furthering the geographical boundaries of hard rock, and clocks out to explore far-flung rivers, seas, waterways, lakes, and pools on his fearless quest for fishing nirvana. His first sturgeon was a whopping 100-pounder from Canada’s swirling Fraser River that nearly wiped him out mid-Maiden tour. And how about the close shave with a large shark off the Virgin Islands while wading waist-deep for bonefish? Not to mention an enviable list of specimen coarse fish from the UK. It’s a lifetime adventure in fishing.