John Ellison

Jack Hargreaves was alright. I'm not a fan of Matt Hayes, not at all. Does anyone remember Hugh Falkus on the river bank, in winter, chucking his self in, waders and all, then calm as you like, floating to the bank. That was a demo' our to save yourself if you fell in. What a man

'Ferret1959' Off load it ASAP, they are garbage. Sorry pal, but it's the truth.

I think the world of my wife. How many more husbands would carry their wives downstairs to make their breakfast

I thought about having a go at Morris dancing once. They told me I ought to have a medical first. Everything was fine until the Doctor noticed I was circumcised. He said he would not allow me to continue under any circumstances, as you have to be a complete p***k to be a Morris dancer.

This is my personal opinion. I'm wrong about most things so don't read too much into it. My sister had a problem recently requiring surgery. Long before they dicovered she had an ovarian cyst, she was told she had to lose weight. She had the figure of the black maid in the Tom and Jerry cartoons. The hospital staff clearly considered her excess weight a health risk in the inevitable surgery that was to come. She lost a token 1 1/2 stones which was nothing like enough. She survived the operation but would have been out of hospital sooner had she been fitter. Smokers. I had a Kidney removed in February. Considered by the surgeon to be 'Major Surgery'. It was. Had I have been a smoker, I think he would have had second thoughts about doing surgery at all. I thank whatever gods may be, for my lungs being in good enough condition to survive it. Drinkers, I take it we are talking alcoholics. I knew a bloke up the street from me admitted to hospital while my dad was in. He was told that if he didn't stop drinking, He'd be dead in a month. He lasted three. 42 years old. George Best, he's costing thousands. Most consider it to be a total waste. Me included. Druggies. Give them all the drugs they need. In one go. You've missed a group out 'Jimpy0' The Aged. Too much is spent on the above, for you to have any chance at all. Everyone owes it to themselves to keep themselves reasonable, if you don't, I see your chances of proper healthcare diminishing by the day. I've had my share of care this year, and apart from the time it took for my treatment to start, I have no complaints at all. But, this runaway train looks to be heading for the buffers. Three into one doesn't go. The amount of time that senior consultants have to waste to ensure against litigation is staggering. Private healthcare looks to me to get you in quicker, and that's it. Paying a monthly fee doesn't improve your health, you do that yourself. What are you going to do when you retire? Premiums escalate, your income doesn't. Buy yourself a Bible, and start looking for loopholes.

There we are, another case of a selfish smoker almost wiping a flight full of passengers out as she craved 'the weed'. That's a severe case of, I'm having a smoke, to hell with the rest

They are exactly what I'm after (waymaster). I'm reluctant to order online and am having some difficulty in finding some locally.

The last thing we give a thought to when we go to work is being shot dead in the execution of our duty. Our Police force are more likely to suffer this fate that most of us. They are in there, where the bullets are flying. I cannot understand what the problem is with stringing up the killers. I have always believed in giving them as much sympathy as they gave their victims. Just who is it who wants to preserve such low life from their deserved fate. It should be statutary as it once was. They should be strung up in Bradford town centre with popcorn, live music, and burgers on sale. This country is becoming the pits. Our pussyfooting MP's should learn to tie a hangman's halter and then use it.

I'm with you all the way BUDGIE. I fish a couple of canals where the sun starts in your face on the left, straight ahead, then in your face on the right. Baseball hat has to be a permenent fixture, added thinsulate when it's cold.

Dick Walker and Fred J Taylor was what I headed straight for when the AT was worth reading. 'Match fishing' by Benny Ashurst was my bible. He transformed my understanding of fishing more than any man dead or alive. Ivan Marks also told it exactly as it was. So incredible were his observations about the use of tiny hooks for bream fishing, despite the fact that he told the whole truth, hardly anyone believed him. I would always pick anglers who could write rather than writers who fish. Big, big difference in my book.

[Pressurised into overstating the quality of fishing by a factor of five!] In my Sea Fishing days, I ran the National PSV Boat Angling Competiton out of Plymouth. We had 300 bus drivers all out at sea on one day, 1985. Making it, I was told, the biggest number of anglers afloat in the country for a boat competition. The angling press arrived, and said that for the result to be published in one of the two weeklies, that we'd have to report 10,000 lbs of fish being caught. The headline indeed reported as such. But, when you added the weights of the heaviest bag winners, the top six, it was patently obvious, that all the also rans, would have had to have caught more than the winners to total 10,000 lbs. We caught in excess of 3,000 lbs and an an excellent days fishing, but, I ask you, why bother. I haven't taken the weeklies for years and don't feel at all impoverished by it, for the very reasons stated above. I take the Sheffield Angling Star because Jim Baxter the editor, lives on the same planet as I do, and the honest articles reflect it.

One of the best photo's I came back from the disney trip was a picture of me and Jessica. I wish Joan had a waistline like that

On my way to the Fox and Goose beer festival last week, there was duck swimming in the Rochdale Canal. The most striking feature of it, was round it's eyes. It had a completely white surround to its eyes. I didn't take a great deal of notice of the rest of it, as I thought this was the feature I'd best be able to identify it by. When I got home, out came the bird books, but I drew a complete blank. It was pochard sized, I can't remember the colour of it's beak. Any ideas. An artificially bred ornamental duck, or what?

NurseJudy's convinced me. I'm booked to see my GP on the 30th. Driving a bus for a living invites the world and his wife to cough all over you, and they do.

I always judge a man by his manners. That outburst against Mick McCarthy was the pits. He's become a loose cannon at Man united. He's had too much to say, and now he's paying. He thinks the worlds going to stop when he gets off. Sorry, but, it never does.

I've seen both mink and terrapins on the Calder & Hebble. The terrapin was 9" long and a nasty piece of work. The mink weren't what you'd call sociable creatures either.

I take one look at Joan and think I stand more chance of scoring on the bank

I watched a programme on the tele' once about migrating Starlings. Just as Blindog says, exhausted starlings dropped onto the sea, and the black backed gulls swallowed them whole.

If my recent malady results in my death, not under any circumstances will my mrs. condone me being mixed with a bag of brown crumb and Sensas Lake and chucked into my favourite swim.

I'm not a Matt Hayes fan. I've never seen him fishing the crap venues where I go. It's not his fault. It's just that I grew up in the club match scene and all my idols were the blokes that caught more fish than the others, week in week out. If you are not beating the blokes at the next peg each week, and are talking, then I'm not listening. One 'guest' Jan Porter, looks like a scarecrow but I can identify with him becuase he was a handy Trent angler in his time. Sorry Matt.

I enjoy canal fishing very much. Locally, I can fish two canals where I can find depths upto 7 feet in one and 8 feet in the other. In the summer you can catch double figure nets of roach on squatt. Winter sees me switch to either caster fishing or bread punch. Either way, I'm catching. I have yet to work out why, but the Ide in the summer are about 1 1/2 lbs maximum, but in winter, I've seen them come out to 4 lbs. I know a 10 feet deep lake with a silty bottom where I can catch tench all year round. In summer it's bedlam, in winter, I rarely see anyone. So, is it worth going in winter, you bet! You'll always be wondering what you're missing if you don't go. Do it.

Joan asked me the other day "What do you want for Christmas" Thank's Steve. What an opportune moment for me to replace my moon boots. My new dog took offence at me leaving him in the house on his own while I went fishing. When I arrived home, he had eaten the padded tops, bless him. I used to have an Eskimo pen friend when I was at school. He wrote me asking "What's a corner?" (Stan Boardman).

Since being told I had Kidney cancer on November 4th. 2004. I have had a pretty rough year. Kidney out on February 4th. Clinical trial from April 25th. Further surgery to remove a re-occurrance on September 30th. So, for my appointment with my consultant today, I was having eggs . My result was as good as it gets. The man said he did not expect any further trouble for the foreseeable future. I'll see you in six months. I'm not stupid enough to think that that's the end of it, but like I said, that's a good result. I was fishing twice last week, and again tomorrow. I feel better already. Thank's for your support everyone. It does make a difference. Wow . Little did I realise that's my 666th. post. A hell of a result

I only fish for silverfish in the main, it's spade ends 100%. In the summer on the carp commercials for feeder fishing I use eyed. The only other time is when I'm tench fishing. Sorry, forgot Barbel. I have always tied by hand. I cannot use a hook tyer. Now that I'm 57, the only difference to my ability to tie down to size 26 which I very rarely use anyway, is, I have to wear reading glasses. My usual reading glasses are 1.75's. In my tackle box, I carry a pair of 2.0's and 3.0's. I use these for tying hooks on the bank with no trouble at all. Also adding size 10 to 13 shot on my line with styl pliers. In the winter, it's always a better option to tie your hooklengths at home. The problem there, is not enough light. When I have a tying session, I set up my Angle Poise lamp from the bedside cabinet, and have a jar of vaseline handy. I then, put the slightest smear of vaseline on my left forefinger and pick up the hook to be tied. This not only allows you to pick the hook up easier, but greases the line, helping you to snug the knot up to the spade before tightening. I even tie all my mates hooks. He's got whitefinger. He has all on to get them out of the packet.

In forty five years as a mainly coarse angler East certainly does equate to least. But, what I could never fathom out, was, Why, on my Cod fishing sessions out of Whitby, Hartlepool and Middlesborough, an east wind was also the kiss of death. I mean, we are talking about fishing in 180 feet of water. The sea looked no different. Yet an easterly wind, onshore, was the only time to bag up on the beach. This of course being due to the rough seas exposing some food for the inshore fish. I remember a time on the R. Nidd when a thunderstorm arrived over me. The river began rising and the Barbel were really having a chew.