Monday 20th August : Flooded off electric-fishing again, so spent the morning in the office, then out to the trap at Tweedsmuir to fit some of the attachments. The sluice here is usually left open during January to let the Winter movements of gravel through, but it has had to be opened again for August to let this Summer's gravel through, as so much has accumulated. Cleaned the Peebles trap on the way down.

Tuesday 21st August : As one of the sets of electric-fishing equipment is in for repair, only two teams out today, on the Teviot, so I stayed in the office and processed the results of last week's meetings. At lunchtime, downriver to collect filled scale packets from Upper Mertoun, Rutherford and The Junction and to hear what is going on from the boatmen. Back at the office, another case for CSI Melrose - weeds and fish scales from nets taken by the bailiffs to be identified.

Wednesday 22nd August : Out Fry Index electric-fishing down the Ale Water with Steven. Salmon right up to the Alemoor Reservoir dam and some very high numbers in the upper Ale. The lower Ale  largely has a smooth, pebble, substrate so no great amount of cover for fish, but still very good numbers of Salmon fry. One site, at the bottom of the Woo Burn (by the Woll golf course) was dominated by Trout fry (very good numbers) while a site just a couple of hundred metres away in the main Ale was dominated by Salmon fry. This is another instance of what we find to be the general case, a very strong habitat separation between Salmon and Trout fry, the former dominating the main, valley-bottom streams, the latter the side burns with very little overlap between the two species. It is very, very, rarely that we find sites where there are equal numbers of fry of both species together. The Ale Water is one of the Tweed's "new" Salmon populations in that it was blocked by a cauld until 1923, when the RTC had it opened up and what we find today is another demonstration on how reduced Salmon production must have been in the past when so much of the Tweed catchment was inaccessible to fish.

Thursday 23rd August : Electric-fishing the Jed Water from top to bottom. Some of the upper sites a good distance from the road - and steep slopes down to them as well. A hot day too, so Steven really felt the weight of the backpack. Very good numbers in the middle and upper Jed, fewer in the lower zone where the habitat not so suitable, but still OK. The Jed is another "new" Salmon population as it was only opened up in the 1980's after being blocked off by the caulds at Jedburgh since 1812 (at least) so another example of how Salmon production is greater now than in the past. 

Friday 24th August : Down to try out the estuary trap again, on a small tide, but no luck. Plan B needed.