Monday 1st October : The Glorious First of October is the beginning of the Trout Trapping season on Tweed, so out today getting the Peebles and Tweedsmuir traps into operating mode - until there is water, there won't be any fish coming upstream but this is the traditional date for setting up.  Kenny has two more traps to come on stream this year, but still need to do some building work for them.

Tuesday 2nd October : Spend the morning putting together Health and Safety "Task" sheets, listing all the risks involved in each "task" we have in our work, with their standard risk levels & mitigation actions. In the afternoon, out to check the thermometers in the Ettrick - the water is so low now there is a risk of them being dried out and, in fact, find that one has. Back at the office confronted with a very puzzling scale from an 18lb fish caught on the Teviot a couple of days ago. Seems to be a Sea-trout, but with many growth checks, will need to think about this one and get a second opinion.

Wednesday 2rd October : Spend the morning on Health and Safety "Task" sheets again, then out with Steven to the Peebles and Tweedsmuir traps. Get the Peebles trap into full trapping mode and almost finish the alterations at Tweedsmuir - run out of battery power for the drill (again). Check on Kenny's trap building efforts at the small trap being build near Cardrona - he' s made an incredibly neat job of it. In the evening, out to the Philiphaugh Salmon Viewing Centre to talk to the Tweed Forum's volunteer guides. Although it's evening and very dark, fish are going through the counter - much more likely to be Sea-trout than Salmon in the dark. I'm told the counter total for October was 196 in the morning - while I'm talking it goes up from 596 to 619, so a big total for the day - without any rise in the water. Obviously spawning is getting so close the fish are just making a run for it, despite the low water.

Thursday 3rd October : Finish drafting the Health and Safety "Task" sheets and put them out to James and Kenny for comment. James patches through to the Ettrick fish counter at coffee time - and it's up to 1277. We've never had so many fish move so fast upstream. Up to the Tweedsmuir trap again and, finally, get the last holes drilled and the last alterations made. Down to the Peebles trap and find five Salmon Parr have come into it since yesterday - the first signs of the spawning season at a trap is the arrival of Salmon Parr, even in small burns in which Salmon never spawn, a few at least will turn up. Only one of the five is sexually mature, but the others are large and will soon be. Why they should do this sort of thing and take themselves into such small burns where there is no hope of them finding a female Salmon is obscure. Steven has his first training season in processing fish with them.

Friday 4th October : Get the rota for visiting the traps drawn up for the next 12 weeks, which means finding out everyone's weekend plans. The monthly all-Tweed staff meeting follows, with all the baillifs - a lively discussion about the Glebe Cauld at Jedburgh is the main event. Another meeting, of those involved with the Wheelieboat Auction on Tuesday follows - I'm to be the photographer for the event. Over lunch, get the clock chimes repaired, putting a new cable in to re-attach the mechanism to the bell. After lunch, the monthly biologist's meeting, reviewing the last month and talking about the next. Some more admin afterwards for me while James goes off to clean some debris from the Gala counter and Steven and Kenny go off to check the Peebles trap.