There are people in this wonderful world of fishing who we might not know personally but whose exploits, comments and interviews leave us with the overwhelming impression of not just an angler with exceptional ability but of a really lovely, warm person who is liked and admired for all the right reasons. I only met Keith Speer a handful of times but for me he typified all these characteristics, and many more besides.
Sadly Keith passed away, all too soon at the age of 60, beside the banks of his beloved Upper River Lea in Hertfordshire, the scene of some of his phenomenal catches of specimen roach, chub and barbel .
Keith’s float caught specimen list will probably never be bettered and includes barbel to 17lb 15oz, chub to 7lb 3oz and a three pound river roach. He was also a keen predator angler with many big pike, perch and zander to his name.
Keith was active in support of angling and fisheries, serving as vice chairman of his local Verulam Angling Club and as a recent member of the British Record Fish Committee where he worked alongside former Angling Trust chairman Mike Heylin. He also attended and spoke at many angling shows and specimen group and fishing club meetings and it was at one such Association of Barbel Enthusiasts gathering a few years ago that I first shared a platform with Keith.
There is no doubt that angling has lost a great advocate, a fine ambassador and a superb fisherman. Here are a few words of tribute from people who knew him well.
Mike Heylin
I can’t speak highly enough of Keith.
He was not only a great angler, who would share any knowledge with those who wanted it, but also a fantastic guy to work with. and I brought him onto the BRFC because of the high respect I had for him as someone with no edge and no ego to get in the way of the important work done by BRFC. He quickly proved an incredibly useful member of the team, was knowledgeable about fish and able to make great assessments.
I knew him through Verulam Angling Club and the local consultative before asking him to join BRFC, an invitation he accepted immediately and fulfilled with great aplomb. He considered it a great honour to serve angling in such a way but I always felt we were honoured by his presence.
I was honoured to know him and to enjoy his company and we had a fishing trip, our first, planned for today…Instead I am sitting here typing a eulogy for him rather than laughing about the fish we would have caught. I will miss him dearly, angling will miss someone who was very special and the local and national angling community is poorer for his passing.
We were very lucky to have had him with us and to show us so many ways of taking specimen fish.
Ian Crook – Chairman, Twyford and District Fishing Club
I first came across Keith on the ‘Barbel Fishing World’ forum, where he called himself ‘Zanderman’. His posts were informative and there was always a little wit thrown in too. We exchanged private messages on many occasions, realising we both had a similar sense of humour, mostly taking the Micky out of others and their views!
We actually met for the first time when he gave a brilliant talk and slide presentation on vertical jigging for zander using a method he had been taught in Holland by Marcel Asbroek, we had such a laugh that night, he agreed to take me out on Rutland water to give it a try and that was the start of a good few years of friendship.
We fished together many, many times, for barbel, grayling and zander, every time laughing from start to finish. During the last few years we got into the habit of talking frequently on the phone, Keith usually calling me when driving – and probably bored! He would always make a point of sharing everything which had upset him since we had last spoken!
Having heard great things about his stick float clinics, I asked if he would do one for Twyford and District Fishing Club, and this he did for the past three years, and very popular they were too. All on the T&DFC committee were so impressed with Keith that we asked him to become a club ambassador, a roll he took on with his usual enthusiasm – he will be very hard to replace.
Keith became a regular on our stand at the ‘Big One’ show as well – in between chatting up Andy Ford of Sky TV and Keith Arthur and constantly popping off to buy more Dave Harrell stick floats.
Sky TV’s Tight Lines loved having Keith on the show and he thoroughly enjoyed taking part. He called me every time he was on his way to yet another filming, casually dropping the fact into conversation and we all gave him stick about his new found stardom, and Sky TV baseball cap!
Words to describe one of the best people I have ever met: funny, confident, helpful, sharing, selfless, supportive, humorous, hairy.
I miss him already…
Dave Harrell
I got to know Keith a few years ago after we met at the ‘Big One’ Show and I always looked forward to contact with him as we shared the same enthusiasm for float fishing. It was a real shock to learn that he’d suddenly died after a fishing trip and I can only hope that he’d had a good day on the river beforehand. He will be missed by many.
Andrew Nellist – British Record Fish Committee
I knew Keith for more than 30 years, having grown up in Park Street where he lived in the same road as our mutual friend Neil Watson. Way back then Keith was already an extremely good float angler and was as ever very funny with a great sense of comic timing.
Recently Neil and I introduced Keith to the delights of bread fishing with light gear on the upper Thames for roach. Keith got well and truly hooked and was back most weekends including just two days before we lost him.
Keith had not been on the BRFC for long but he was a real asset to the committee with his ‘let’s make it happen’ attitude and his infectious sense of humour. The last meeting of the BRFC in December was the best I’d ever been to and the reason for that was the humour and warmth Keith brought to the meeting.
Angling has lost a really big character and someone who would otherwise have continued to make a huge contribution to our sport.
Keith Arthur
When I received a message that Keith Speer had passed away it took a long time to sink in. Keith was certainly a character that couldn’t be ignored, a larger-than-life bear of a man with a seemingly fixed smile on his face and a ready laugh.
I met Keith, as with so many great anglers, through Tight Lines, and we hit it off immediately because we both love stick-float fishing. Keith was a superb match angler who went on to develop his match-honed stick-float style to target big fish and boy was he successful at it. His record with barbel, chub, roach and dace – the classic quarry for river anglers – was simply amazing and he seemed to be able to sort out big fish and present his bait to them in such a way as to make it irresistible. Although he fished for carp in stillwaters he had no thoughts of taking the more sedentary style, sitting behind alarms with baits in the water for many hours, to seek out barbel and chub. He simply trotted for them.
We fished a few times on his spiritual home: the tiny Upper Lea in Hertfordshire, on stretches of river that he and his Verulam club were responsible for their magnificence.
Some days it was impossible to get through the barbel to catch the roach…on the stick of course. He explained to me how his father drummed the ’12 pieces of hemp’ rule into him so as to not overfeed and bring roach too high in the water, giving them just enough grub to keep them competing.
It was always a joy to sit and listen to stories from Keith and I was privileged to fish with him a few times and also to host him twice in the Tight Lines bothy. Believe me when I tell you that an hour simply wasn’t enough and we continued to talk rivers and stick floats as the cameras moved out and the lights dimmed.
Now the lights have dimmed for Keith.
Verulam AC are producing a tribute book for Keith, visit their website HERE for further information.
Keith J. Speer R.I.P. (November 1955 to February 2015)
This article forms part of Martin’s Angling Trust Fighting for Fishing blog and is reproduced in an edited form here on FishingMagic with his kind permission.
