Do you ever wonder about the impact that the conversations you have with others may have.  Whether balls are set rolling or if small stones eventually create landslides that bring about real change in either attitudes or actions?

A good while ago I spent a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours talking to an angler who was considering options to change the way in which his club managed its fishery on a river not far from here.  For some months (and for very valid reasons) everything went quiet and I assumed that this was another of those occasions when much is said, enthusiasm is engaged, but the sheer effort of shoving the boulder of change up slope only to see it roll back again saps energy and commitment.

I had a couple of emails over the past few days that suggest that our time was well spent and whilst everything that my friend wished to address has not yet come to pass real progress is being made.  He tells me that a motion to move to a sustainable wild trout fishery was only lost by the narrowest of margins, that attitudes are changing, that a few club and committee members have joined the Wild Trout Trust and that next time the motion comes before committee for a vote it may well be carried.  Furthermore they are embarking on a programme of invertebrate monitoring to establish a baseline for measuring future improvements in habitat and water quality.

You can't change over 150 years of tradition overnight, but the moves here seem remarkable and a credit to the persuasive powers of my friend.  It may not be long before yet another Dales river becomes a haven for wild brown trout.

Don't ask about the weather!  At least the gales subsided yesterday, but we still have plenty of precipitation and it's none too warm given that it's July.

Ian