Eric Clapton Sets New International Record........Fly Fishing!

[dtripoli]

I think this happened last year but it's the first I heard of it.

Clapton was on fly-fishing trip in Iceland when he used those nimble fingers of his to snag a 28-pound,
42.5 inch salmon, which was apparently the largest that had been caught in the country so
far this season. He caught the enormous fish along the Vatnsdalsá River
in the country’s northern region. It was during his afternoon expedition where the large fish apparently forced the older rocker to run over half a mile downriver to then spend the next two and a half hours reeling it in.

It was Gary Brooker, the founder of the rock band Procol Harum, who taught Clapton to fly fish.
Brooker lived a few miles away from Clapton and explained to him that fly-fishing was different — it was a psychological victory over a trout or salmon.
Presenting a fly to a fish without spooking it was most of the challenge. After teaching Clapton how to cast,
Brooker knew he had hooked his friend on the sport.

Invalid Link Removed

 

[the harp unstrung]

Great story!
Thanks for sharing.


(Other stuff that old rock n rollers do well...
Alice Cooper & Huey Lewis are both Scratch golfers.)

 

[Aberdumbie]

Slow hand can work a fly!

 

[fhm555]

Love me some fly fishing although i'm not that good at it. I start out well enough but if i'm not careful and allow my focus to drift even a tiny bit, i go from fly casting to thrashing a bunch of water.

fly fishing is a lot like golf. Takes five minutes to learn the basic stroke, then a lifetime to perfect it.

 

[two fingers]

I bet that sucker tasted incredible.

A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at the office.

The part about having to run down the river to reel it in is the best part. Not THAT'S when fishing becomes a sport!

 

[Son of Wobble]

He needs to drop a humbucker in that sucka

 

[DirtDog]

A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at the office.

An old saw, but so true. In fact, I last head this expression on the lake last night - butchered by a non-native speaker (Portuguese, I think) - he and his two buddies were pretty ripped and in a tippy little outrigger canoe unsuccessfully trying to catch largemouth bass. If they weren't so talkative, they might have landed something.

I kept my boat well away from that crew, but not far enough that I couldn't get to them quick if they swamped their rig. But even that would have been way better than a good day at the office!

 

[elgecko]

I bet that sucker tasted incredible.

Not to set you off or anything but:

The local fishing association enforces a strict catch-and-release policy on the Vatnsdalsá River, but Clapton was able to snap a picture of his record-setting catch before setting it back into the river.

 

[two fingers]

Not to set you off or anything but:

I'm not set off at all. After that long of an adventure he deserves to swim off I suppose. Are you old enough to remember "Walter" from On Golden Pond? Kinda like that.

 

[HaphAsSard]

fly fishing is a lot like golf. Takes five minutes to learn the basic stroke, then a lifetime to perfect it.

Yeah but...is bass fishing harder than guitar fishing? perhaps "easier to learn, harder to master"? What about scales? Enquiring minds and all that...
Hiding the Cringe...

 

[fhm555]

Yeah but...is bass fishing harder than guitar fishing? perhaps "easier to learn, harder to master"? What about scales? Enquiring minds and all that...
Hiding the Cringe...

Actually guitar fish are really easy to catch, all you need is something bright and flashy. It helps if it appears to sparkle when turned in a light source, but bright and flashy will be enough for all but the oldest, most wary of guitar fish. Easy as they are to catch, guitar fish will quickly become bored with a bait they've seen more than a few times and will ignore it after a couple of casts. Fortunately they also have the shortest attention span of all the musical fishes so the simple solution is to change baits after a few casts. The good news is their short attention span works to your advantage in that you only need a few lures used in rotation. By the time a lure comes up in rotation, it's like the guitar fish has never seen it.

Bass fish on the other hand are much more difficult to boat. While a wide selection of bait is not usually required, older lures in pristine condition, especially those with a combination of three colors and a section of hard tortise shell, are deadly on bass fish; they simply cannot resist that combination. Not all bass fall for this lure, but those who do not usually hit lures that look like miniture coffee tables or something bright with a lot of pointy bits.

So as you can see, catching both guitar and bass fish is not that difficult. The real trick is being able to spot the false guitar and bass fish. While you may think your fish finder is showing you a large school of guitar fish, more likely what you are seeing is a mass of false guitar fish (popularly known as posers). While a few true guitar fish may be hiding among them, it is more common to find schools of posers while the true guitar fish tend to be more solitary because no one understands or appreciates their sacrifice. And don't be fooled by those who say you can cull the false guitar fish using the volume knob test. Neither true guitar fish or the posers have any idea what a volume knob is.

Because of the low attraction rate of female fish to both true and poser bass fish they are much fewer in number than guitar fish and as a rule are not as easy to find as few bass fish require the validation so many guitar fish simply cannot live without. As with all things there are exceptions and the flashy bass fish who believes they can be a solo fish on par with the popularity of your typical guitar fish do exist, they are indeed a rare find in the bass world.

So in summary, bass fish are much more difficult to catch, but this is due in no small measure to their disproportionately smaller numbers in both the true and false types than guitar fish; not to mention bass fish tend to be much smarter and more aware than your typical guitar fish.

 

[elgecko]

I'm not sure where the "international record" thing came from. The article said it was the biggest one THIS SEASON. That rarely gets a mention in the waters I fish, much less an article. It's the Eric Clapton part that makes it newsworthy

 

[fhm555]

I'm not sure where the "international record" thing came from. The article said it was the biggest one THIS SEASON. That rarely gets a mention in the waters I fish, much less an article. It's the Eric Clapton part that makes it newsworthy

I checked the current IGFA records and it's not listed so it must be a local or country thing.

 

[Fleebag]

Yeah but...is bass fishing harder than guitar fishing? perhaps "easier to learn, harder to master"? What about scales? Enquiring minds and all that...
Hiding the Cringe...

Fly fishing is the fretless bass of the fishing world. A time and a place for it but always fun and entertaining even if the results are not.

 

[HaphAsSard]

Actually guitar fish are really easy to catch, all you need is something bright and flashy. It helps if it appears to sparkle when turned in a light source, but bright and flashy will be enough for all but the oldest, most wary of guitar fish. Easy as they are to catch, guitar fish will quickly become bored with a bait they've seen more than a few times and will ignore it after a couple of casts. Fortunately they also have the shortest attention span of all the musical fishes so the simple solution is to change baits after a few casts. The good news is their short attention span works to your advantage in that you only need a few lures used in rotation. By the time a lure comes up in rotation, it's like the guitar fish has never seen it.

Bass fish on the other hand are much more difficult to boat. While a wide selection of bait is not usually required, older lures in pristine condition, especially those with a combination of three colors and a section of hard tortise shell, are deadly on bass fish; they simply cannot resist that combination. Not all bass fall for this lure, but those who do not usually hit lures that look like miniture coffee tables or something bright with a lot of pointy bits.

So as you can see, catching both guitar and bass fish is not that difficult. The real trick is being able to spot the false guitar and bass fish. While you may think your fish finder is showing you a large school of guitar fish, more likely what you are seeing is a mass of false guitar fish (popularly known as posers). While a few true guitar fish may be hiding among them, it is more common to find schools of posers while the true guitar fish tend to be more solitary because no one understands or appreciates their sacrifice. And don't be fooled by those who say you can cull the false guitar fish using the volume knob test. Neither true guitar fish or the posers have any idea what a volume knob is.

Because of the low attraction rate of female fish to both true and poser bass fish they are much fewer in number than guitar fish and as a rule are not as easy to find as few bass fish require the validation so many guitar fish simply cannot live without. As with all things there are exceptions and the flashy bass fish who believes they can be a solo fish on par with the popularity of your typical guitar fish do exist, they are indeed a rare find in the bass world.

So in summary, bass fish are much more difficult to catch, but this is due in no small measure to their disproportionately smaller numbers in both the true and false types than guitar fish; not to mention bass fish tend to be much smarter and more aware than your typical guitar fish.

Thanks, I needed this!

 

[Gazman]

If you squint, it looks like he is holding a bass.

 

[dtripoli]

That's some bigga fish.
If they catch and release, how do they know how much it weighs or how long it is?
Do they pack a tape measure and weight scale in their tackle box?....asks the obviously not a fly fisherman.

 

[elgecko]

That's some bigga fish.
If they catch and release, how do they know how much it weighs or how long it is?
Do they pack a tape measure and weight scale in their tackle box?....asks the obviously not a fly fisherman.

Tools of the trade.

 

[dtripoli]

Of course!
Makes more sense than the image I had in my brain...