Monday 18th May: Back from a week's leave, so a backlog of e-mails to deal with, which took up most of the day, apart from a visit to the sawmill at Philiphaugh where some wood for trap repairs is being cut - they couldn't understand my diagram. While I was away, scales sent in from a fish caught in St. Mary's Loch - turned out to be from a salmon kelt, still in the loch in mid May and very emaciated and caught on a dead lamprey bait ! 

The tagged salmon caught at Bemersyde on the 5th May was,  as suspected, tagged on the North Esk at the Kinnaber Mill trap as a smolt in April 2007. It was 132mm when tagged and was estimated as 8-9lbs when caught and released.

Tuesday 19th May: Up to the Faskally laboratory with Nick for a meeting with the FRS personnel who deal with stocking consents in Scotland to compare  the Tweed and Scottish policies as we want to keep in line with both the English and Scottish systems. James was out at the Ettrick counter today and reports fresh salmon showing at the cauld, where there was a small spate.

Wednesday 20th May: In the morning finished a first draft for the Code of Good Practice in Fisheries Management and in the afternoon, a discussion with James of the data we have on Spring Salmon and its implications for management.

Thursday 21st May: On leave, fishing in the Ellem Fishing Club's annual river competition - fished since 1834, almost certainly the oldest such competition in the world. The annual dinner is in the evening, when I will have the interesting experience of paying to hear one of my own assistants (Kenny) give a talk.

Friday 22nd May: Weekly staff meeting in the morning. Admin in the afternoon, including finding some shelving for the electric-fishing lockup.