Ettrick counter results for October . The count is complete from the 10th of October onwards, when the software was adjusted so that video clips were kept for each rejected event as well as for each event recorded as a fish going up. The counter recorded 1907 fish directly, but of  the 2814 rejected events,  787 (28%) turned out from the video clips to have been fish as well,  making 2694 fish definitely recorded for the month

In the ten days before the software adjustment was made, there were 830 rejected events and if the same percentage (28%) is applied to these, then there were another 232 fish for October. However, it is clear from the data that the counter was being very variable in what it was doing – it had days in which it worked perfectly and others in which it rejected just about every fish. This lack of consistency means that this total for  the first 10 days can only be taken as an estimate. However, there is no doubt that fish were being mis-identified in the first 10 days, so it is reasonable to add in this 232 to make an estimated total for the month of 2926

The Gala Counter is now working though there remains a considerable amount of work to be done in getting it exactly right. The count from the 26th September to the 26th October was 711 fish, mainly trout it would seem. There was a good run of Salmon just when the counter was put in but it was not working well then and that run was missed. It is already apparent that there will be a smaller percentage of fish that can be directly identified as Salmon or Sea-trout from the video in the Gala counter because the Gala is so much siltier than the Ettrick. When a spate is on, little more than shadows can be seen in the brown water. However, when the water is clear, the colour video means that identification is even easier than with the Ettrick clips. The visual ID’s that are made, however, will still give a large sample with which to work out the percentages of each size class of fish that are Salmon or Sea-trout (i.e. if 50% of the fish of 55-59cms that can be directly identified are Salmon, then 50% of fish of the same size class that cannot be directly identified should also be Salmon and so on).

This months video clips are a crowded moment from the Ettrick and a nice, silver, Salmon  going up the Gala