Tweed's 2009 catch was better than some believed it would be............   more »

The acoustic tags and tracking gear arrive and a paper on historic catch records so far this week.   more »

The RTC's AGM; trout genetics survey planning; cleaning up the smolt traps; bird count admin and hybrid juveniles this week.   more »

Opportunity to purchase RTC 4x4 van....   more »

River Tweed Commission introduces a carcass-tagging scheme for net caught Salmon and Sea-trout from the Tweed District today.....   more »

Tweed Foundation paper sheds light on Tweed fish sizes......   more »

All anglers should be aware of the new rules for Spring Salmon fishing on Tweed....   more »

Fish counter totals for the Ettrick and the Gala   more »

The Winter closedown and the prospects for next year.   more »

Decision taking to stop trapping as waters too high, a 10oz Grilse examined and the data for the annual control licence for Goosanders this week.    more »

Monday 16th November: Almost the whole day out at the traps. James on duty over the weekend, but the water had been too high to do anything on Saturday. He got things going again on the Sunday, but the real clean up only possible today. Three Sea-trout and a Brown-trout female at the Peebles trap, the run beginning to start there and one going up at Tweedsmuir, which is a bit late as we've just been getting kelts coming down for the last two weeks. News from the new trap on a tributary of the Ale, a second salmon caught, this one a female, to match the little male caught there some time ago. So there's a pair up this little burn, if they can find each other. I still can't see how anything this small can be a proper salmon spawning burn, so we'll have to do some electric-fishing next summer to see if anything actually did happen.

Tuesday 17th November: Out with Kenny to the traps, as some repairs needing done and still working on the improvements. Just a kelt in the Tweedsmuir trap and small immatures in the others. News from the trap at Coldstream, being run by the Angling Association there. They have been seeing the odd dead Grayling fry below the trap, with what appeared to be small bill / grab marks on them and have now seen the culprit - a Kingfisher. The bird is just not big enough to carry off something the size of a Grayling fry, but obviously tries. All but the Tweedsmuir trap get small immatures running up stream at spawning time, though only the Coldstream trap gets Grayling fry as well as Salmon and trout.

Wednesday 18th November: Out at the traps again, but today with a group of students from Napier University's Aquatic Management M. Sc. course. A little rise in water overnight, so four takeable sized Brown-trout in the Cardrona trap and three immatures. Unusually, one of the larger trout was a female. Explained to the students that one of the reasons for running these traps is to see what actually spawns the juvenile trout we find in these burns when electric-fishing as it's not possible to tell whether small  trout are going to be Sea or Brown trout till they actually smolt. At six out of the seven burns we've got traps on, it has turned  out that the vast majority of eggs come from Sea-trout females, fertilised largely by smaller, male  Brown-trout, so the spawning runs are made up of a lot of smaller Brown-trout and a few larger Sea-trout. We do get male Sea-trout, but they are much less common. We also get female Brown-trout, but these are also relatively rare. The exception to this is the population we trap at Tweedsmuir, which is a Brown-trout population with 50:50 males and females from 1 to 6lbs in size - but nothing in the trap  there to show the students today, as its probably finished here (the first snow on the hills around today). As a result of what we have been finding in the traps, one of the things we are working on is to establish the sex ratio of Brown-trout in the Tweed generally, so we can see if there is really such a thing as a Brown-trout population here or whether they are simply the freshwater-resident part of the Sea-trout population.

Thursday 19th November: Out to check the traps with Kenny, but not expecting even to be able to get to them in this water. Took the Cardrona trap out as low banks nearby and a flooding risk. Just took photos of the high flows at the others - had to go to Tweedsmuir via Broughton as the lower road closed due to flooding. News from the Coldstream trap is that they have started to catch Sea-trout there, showing it to be like the other populations, where the eggs come mainly from Sea-trout females and are fertilised by Brown-trout males.

Friday 20th November:  Weekly meeting in the morning and various bits of admin, including looking at more applications for the acoustic tracking Ph D.  Out with Kenny to the traps, but road closures due to the flooding making for detours. Too high to get the Cardrona trap back in or get near the Peebles one, but able to start the clean up at Tweedsmuir. Great chunks of turf and heather and a mass of gravel to be cleaned up - will take a few days. The "mini-grilse" are in the freezer now, and I'll get the dissection done on Wednesday. Will be very interested to see what sex they are are whether they are maturing.

Monday 9th November: Catching up on e-mails, admin and data entry. This last very necessary as the troubles with the waterproof paper means that the trapping results are on lots of separate bits of paper, scale packets etc. which need to have the data taken from them as soon as possible. A new box of paper today, tested it - and it worked perfectly, can be written on under a film of water. An answerphone message about a tagged fish picked up dead (half eaten) on an Upper Tweed burn - the first of the August tagged fish to turn up anywhere.

Tuesday 10th November: More admin and writing, and a look through some of the applications that have been made for the acoustic tracking Ph D, which has now been advertised. In the afternoon, out to work on the Peebles trap. Hope to have it fully renovated next week.

Wednesday 11th November: To Perth for a RAFTS meeting on management plans and future financing. A big turn out from all the Trusts and some considerable discussion

Thursday 12th November : On leave

Friday 13th  November: Weekly meeting in the morning. More tissue samples brought in for genetics analysis, including some from a 10 oz grilse (which is in a freezer now and which I'll have the chance to examine next week. Want to see if such fish are actually maturing and to check the ID) and a 30lb salmon. Various bits of admin and e-mail in the afternoon.

A major new area of work with Sea-trout populations offers the chance of research with The Tweed Foundation.....   more »

Fish Counter results for October 2009 : (see attachment) The Ettrick had a record headline count for an October, only the third time that 4,000 has been exceeded. The September count was the second lowest on record, fish ceasing to run in the second half of that month as water levels became very low, so it seems that the fish that could not run then, ran in October instead. However, the combined September and October totals for this year are also very good, and with November still to come, the overall count for this year has already passed the annual totals of 2004, 2007 and 2008 and is more or less equal to the total for 2003. The breakdown into Salmon and Trout totals will, however, take some time as the software glitch has meant that instead of 10 seconds of video for each fish, there are three still photographs instead, so there is  less information for each fish on which to base an identification, making it more difficult - and longer. This was, again, a very good Sea-trout year, so a good count of trout is expected.

The Gala count for October was also very good, almost exactly the same as last October. We have now had two high and two low October counts here, so it is still not clear what is "normal". The overall total for this year is already past that of 2007.

Traps and floods and a suicidal salmon so far this week.   more »

On fish trap duty this week.   more »

Trap maintenance, electric-fishing on the Wooler Water and the first Brown-trout of the season in the traps so far this week.   more »

Water temperature recording and Euro budgets so far this week.   more »

The Gala cauld gets a new entrance to aid fish passage   more »

First recapture comes later than usual........   more »

Fish Counter Results for September 2009 (Attached) : September really was a month of two halves, high water for the first and low for the second. The Ettrick results are about half what would be expected for September, perhaps because there was only a half month of good running conditions - the next spate will show. The Gala figures are very close to those of 2007 and down on those of 2008. Again, the next spate will really show what this year's totals are to be like.

Genetics steering group meeting, admin and the recapture of tagged fish so far this week.   more »

The Philiphaugh Salmon Homecoming and meetings on Fisheries Management Good Practice and on Goosander counts this week.   more »

Trap repairs, data entry and collecting up samples for genetics analysis so far this week.   more »

Electric-fishing on the lower Ettrick and netting and tagging so far this week.   more »

Tweed's Spring Salmon Conservation Measures will change in 2010.......   more »

Where our Spring fish come from.....   more »

Prime dates on offer this autumn on Tweed........   more »

A newly published paper explains why Tweed does not need help from a hatchery....   more »

Attempting electric-fishing on the Ettrick and Yarrow and a meeting on EU project management so far this week.    more »

Fish Counter results for August  (Attached):The Ettrick total was well above average, but average means little in August which is a very variable month. If dry, there are only a few tens of fish, if wet, there can be several hundred. The Gala count was down on the two previous Augusts counted, but with such a short track record, this means little.

The annual competition triumphed, despite difficult conditions.....   more »

Electric-fishing and the 150th anniversary of the Kelso Angling Assoc. so far this week.   more »

It is vital that any fish with a red vent that is kept for eating is cooked thoroughly......    more »

Electric-fishing at the top of the Manor and the Tarth Waters so far this week.   more »

Electric-fishing the Caddon, the Glensax and the Leithen this week, then washed out for the rest.    more »