Nick Speed – A Fortnight for the Memory Books

4 April, 2022 | Match & Coarse | Angler Blogs | Articles | News

1 Comments

After a brilliant couple of weeks on Festivals, Big Finals and Winter Leagues. Nick Speed looks back and shares his tips on what has been a fortnight for the memory books…

He Says:

“Well what a weekend I’ve just experienced on the fishing front.

Back in January, I managed to qualify for the Golden Rod final for the third time at Boddington reservoir with only 3 roach! The venue on this particular day fished terrible, regardless however, I managed to qualify and that’s all that matters.

Without doubt this is one final I’ve always wanted to win… In the previous 2 finals of the G.R, I’ve managed to win the match on one of the two days, but then wouldn’t do so good on the other. So this event has always felt like a “nemesis” to me, and one that I felt I could never win, due to bad luck…

 

Day 1:

On the first day of the 2 day final, I drew on the Specimen Lake peg 9… Which is in the middle section where 6 anglers on this bank are competing with the 6 anglers opposite in the same area of the lake.

My plan was quite simple as I figured out whilst practicing that a method feeder approach was the correct way to catch the better stamp bream…

I’ve started off casting 50 metres using the Aero x5 12ft Feeder Rod/ Ultegra 5500xtc with 8lb mainline to a 42g hybrid feeder/ 2mm fishery micros/ betaine green pellet soak/0.19 Aero slick silk/ 14 mwg/ 7mm speedy washter pink.

In the first 4 hours, this only produced around 10lb of skimmers, leaving me well down in the section with only 1 hour remaining…

Luckily in the final 40 mins, my edge line sprang to life as I managed my first big carp of around 20lb. Using the  Aero x7 11ft/ Vanford 4000 reel, 8lb mainline/ 32g medium hybrid feeder/9mm speedy washter/ 12 mwg/ 0.21 Aero slick silk. Topping my swim up with green swim stim via a large baiting feeder to create a cloud..

Although I was only under arming a feeder down the margin, I opted to use the 11ft as it has more power and control in the lower section to handle these bigger Carp!

Shortly afterwards I was greeted by a small carp of around 3lb. Then with 5 mins remaining, I latched into a huge carp… and after finally fitting it into my landing net, this 26lb 11oz personal best Common Carp was landed… 5 mins after the whistle!

At the weigh in I managed 59lb which was enough to win the section so a great start to the final…

 

Day 2:

On day 2 I drew on match lake peg 31  which is an OK area but I was in the section with 2 end pegs, and over the past 2 days these particular end pegs have dominated the match, so I was honesty thinking that I would be fishing for 3rd at best…or so I thought!  I suppose that’s the beauty about fishing,  you just never know what’s going to happen…

My set up for the day was quite simple.  Aero x7 10ft( which I would regard as the best 10ft feeder rod)/4000 vanford reel/ small hybrid feeder and a 7mm speedy washter pink.

Looking at the air pressure I knew it was going to be a tough day, especially with a really hard frost in the morning. So for this reason I concentrated on plopping a method feeder at 6 metres in front of me, just dropping down into the slightly deeper water.

With one hour remaining, I had managed 6 carp from this area, which was really good in my section, and to top it off I managed another 4 carp from down the margin in the final 30 minutes.

At the final whistle I’d managed 10 carp for a section winning 48lb…but more importantly a perfect 2pt score which sealed the victory of being crowned the £10,000 2022 Golden Rod Champion…

It still hasn’t sunk in to be honest… Absolutely over the moon!

 

Lindholme Lakes Winter League:

Then to top off a perfect weekend I soon found out after the G.R presentation that I’d also managed to win the Lindholme Winter League for the third year running.

Those of you that know me, know how much I wanted to win this hat trick winter league, as not only is the calibre of anglers high at Lindholme, but to win it 3 times in a row is a feat I’ll be amazed to see happen again…

Although I missed the final round, I managed to hold onto the lead with 14 pts dropping a 4th in the section!

Double whammy…

I can’t thank Dynamite enough for the support they’ve given me over the past 16 years, and the products that have given me a massive amount of confidence in my fishing…”

 

Dynamite Baits White Acres Spring Festival:

Nicks fantastic run of form also continued when he travelled down to White Acres for the Dynamite Baits Spring Festival…

He says:

“As always at White Acres, it was ridiculously tight at the top with most of the anglers in contention also winning their sections on the last day…

After the 5 days, I ended up with 4 section wins dropping a second but unfortunately lost out on weight by 25lb to win the festival overall, meaning I ended up coming 3rd!

Those lost fish yesterday really cost me… But that was always going to happen on a feature peg like that!

All in all, I had a great week with Ginger, Alex and May… Absolutely loved it!

The highlight of the week, was when the Welsh Lads next door left their lodge unlocked so myself and May rubbed chilli’s over everything they owned… Including their toothbrushes! xxx

Still love going down to White Acres, always a great week in every way. Well done to Andy Bennett on the win, awesome…”