Farewell Keith

The FM team would like to express their great sorrow upon hearing of the death of one of our regular contributors, both to these forums and to our features, Keith Speer.

Keith was a gifted angler who was always happy to share his extensive knowledge with others and we know he helped countless anglers achieve their dreams through this site - as well as on the river bank.

He will be sadly missed and our thoughts are with his friends and family at this sad time. Rest in peace Keith.

He was an extraordinary man and angler, generous with both time and advice, I only met him a few times but feel privileged to have met and spoken with him on those occasions.

I did not know Keith but, I enjoyed his contributions immensely and very sorry to hear this news. From one angler to another, thanks and tight lines buddy.

Keith Speer collapsed on his way back to his car after spending the day at his favourite stretch of the upper Lea.

I was very shocked, it was only a short while ago that I was talking to him.

He was a brilliant angler and his list of huge fish (of most species) was phenomenal. Only a few days earlier he had caught a 7lb plus Chub and his 17lb 15oz Barbel caught in the snow in December 2010 which earned him the Angling Times catch of the year award that year was only one of three double figure barbel that he'd caught in the preceding week and the week after during one of the coldest Decembers we'd had for many years, and only one of the many huge Barbel that he'd caught in his lifetime. He caught a lot of huge 2lb plus Roach too, and recently caught one of just over 3lb from one of our club waters. In fact he regularly caught very large specimens of many other species too, including Zander (his forum name was often 'ZanderMan').

A number of years ago Keith had made the decision to only fish using the float and the Centrepin and his catches have been truely remarkable, I find it unbelievable but Keith caught his near 18lb Barbel on a 3lb 6oz hooklength and size 18 hook trotting a stick on one of his float rods.

His regular trotting clinics for the club were always oversubscribed and he had a lot of respect from anyone who knew him.

I feel very privileged to have known him.

If Keith is reading this from a river up there; RIP Keith, you will be sorely missed.

Keith (BoldBear)

Rather late, but this morning I woke at five and just had to go fishing.
Thanks largely to Keith's article on wet bread, all I had to do, bait-wise, was microwave-defrost a block of mashed bread from the freezer and grab a film-wrapped slice of pressed wet bread, also from the freezer.
I shan't bore you with the details, but I moved about a bit, following the bread downstream, and fished four swims for a chublet, my fourth ever four-pounder from the Gade, another of 3:06 (weighed), three more proper ones (two lbs +, from this little river), a "netter" chub that wouldn't have made a pound, but was so fast and grumpy I thought it was a little barbel at first, and a bream that had decided it was a fast-water species and hang the rule-book.
Nothing special for a three-hour session, but it made me very happy, so thank you, Keith, for your articles; I wish I'd met you, I'd doubtless have learned a lot, and I think I'd have enjoyed the process enormously.
Rest in Peace, Sir, and I hope there's a decent bit of fishing for you "over there".

Keith was not someone I knew. But from his writings on here he became someone who I respected. I am sure that his legacy will live on for many years in his writings.

RIP Keith.