Aug112016
Daily DrakeClapSalm

English rocker Eric Clapton, 71, is one of the most influential guitarists of all time. He’s also, evidently, an Atlantic salmon fishing boss. While on a flyfishing trip to Iceland last week, Clapton landed this 28-pound, 42-inch slab on the Vatnsdalsá River, setting the record for stroking the river’s biggest salmon of the summer. He and guide Sturla Birginsson, according to Men’s Journal, ran more than half a mile downriver and spent two and a half hours getting the fish to shore before releasing it.

Slowhand learned to fish on the Wey River as a kid in Surrey, England. And he’s been fishing more frequently since getting sober 30 years ago, picking up the long rod and turning to rivers for their therapeutic qualities. He described his infatuation with the sport in his book, Clapton: The Autobiography:

ClapSalm“That first summer of my recovery was one of the most beautiful I can remember, perhaps because I was healthy and clean, and I began to rent some trout-fishing days for myself, mostly on stretches of water in the neighborhood that had been specifically stocked for local fisherman… Fishing is an absorbing pastime and has a Zen quality to it. It’s an ideal pursuit for anyone who wants to think a lot and get things in perspective. It was also a perfect way of getting physically fit again, involving as it does a great deal of walking. I would go out at the crack of dawn and often stay out till nighttime… For once I was actually becoming good at something that had nothing to do with guitar playing or music. For the first time in a long time, I was doing something very normal and fairly mundane, and it was really important to me.”

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Tom Bie
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Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily Drake
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Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

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