Fishing enthusiast Adrian Smith also happens to play guitar with legendary heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. The group has sold over 100 million albums and played over 2000 live shows. 

Away from the strenuous demands of his music career, Adrian is a compulsive angler and enjoys targeting fish of all species. His fishing has taken him around the world, from his local Colne Valley Lakes to Canada’s Frazer Rapids. Adrian has landed a whole magnitude of sizeable species, including impressive carp to over 40 pounds and giant 100-pound sturgeon.

Smith recently released his first book titled Monsters Of River And Rock, via Virgin Books. The book gives a delightful insight into the world of heavy metal music, combined with the tranquillity and thrill of being obsessed with fishing.

During Episode 29 of the Korda Thinking Tackle Podcast, which can be seen below, Adrian talks to host Simon Pitt about his life as a rock musician, combined with his devotion to fishing.

Pitt remarks that his favorite chapter in Monters Of River & Rock is when Adrian took off to Canada with his now-wife, Natalie. To which Smith replies, "We (Iron Maiden) did the Powerslave Tour - some people say it was 13 months, I think it was about 12 months solid on the road. We did back to back American tours. We did Europe, I think we did Japan, might have even done Australia. We just did everything. Obviously, you're exhausted afterward. I'd just met Natalie, who's my wife now. I was at a loose end. I was hanging around in L.A. and we were watching a fishing program on TV. I'd invited her around, I cooked her fish fingers and chips; I'm a real romantic guy, you know."

After the laughter subsides, Adrian continues, "We were watching TV and we saw a program on trout fishing in Canada, there's these guys catching these huge trout, and whooping and hollering like they do. I said, 'I'd love to do that!' She said, 'Well, I know where we can go and do that. So, we just got a plane up to Vancouver and rented a Camaro, which is not the best fishing transport. It was like a small version of the Batmobile. To be fair, I didn't have much fishing gear with me, but we picked up fishing gear along the way, and just stayed in a place called The Banff Springs Hotel, which is a famous old hotel in Banff, just outside of Calgary. We were only supposed to stay there for a couple of weeks, we ended up being almost six weeks. We went from Calgary, up into the Rocky Mountains. We flew by float plane into the interior. We saw bears, we thought we were going to get eaten by a bear at one point. We caught loads of trout."