Monday 26th February : Catching up in the morning, sorting out commitments made at last week's various meetings. The IFM AGM was of great interest, the first account I've heard of the Strategic Framework for Freshwater Fisheries that is being drawn up by a group of the Freshwater Fisheries Forum. There's no actual document to see yet, as changes are being made almost daily, but the principles sound good. This document will be one of a series, there are others for Inshore Fisheries, Agriculture etc. Just like the new Fisheries and Aquaculture Bill that also came out of the Forum, this Framework will be a product of the new way things are done under Devolution. Under the old Westminster system, consultation documents were sent out for three months comment in a more or less finished form, and there never seemed much point in taking too much effort in responding as it was pretty obvious things had been settled by the Civil Servants. Under Devolution though, it is the Forums that produce the documents - and even Bills - and these are made up of the representatives of the people who actually do things. A huge change, real involvement in policy setting by real people.  In the afternoon finally get on to what was supposed to be one of the main themes for this month's work, getting on with the Fisheries Management Manual. We have had a Fisheries Management Plan since 1990, but the Manual is the setting for this - all the descriptions of the fish species and stocks and historic and present data. It is a huge job for a river the size of the Tweed and I have been working on it in fits and starts for the last six years. Revised what I had written on  the history of the Tweed's netting industry (800 years of it !)  by the end of the day.

Tuesday 27th February : Whole day revising and patching together the different versions of the account of the Brown-trout fishery of the Tweed that I've produced over the years and get it all stitched together and coherent at last. Typing arm is beginning to ache, so can't blog any more today.

Wednesday 28th February :  More on the Fisheries Management Manual and also put together a report on the effect of the Northumberland Drift net buyout on the rod catches for the Tweed Council meeting on Monday.

Thursday 1st March : More on the Management Manual. Part of this is made up of accounts of all the different fish species, native and alien, found in the catchment. One piece of work needed for the section on Salmon was on their rate of sexual maturation through the season, the only information we have on which comes from a study made in 1894 and 95 when hundreds of Salmon, both net and rod caught, were weighed and then opened up to have their gonads weighed as well -the percentage of the body weight made up the gonads is the index of maturation. I'd put this off for years as the results of this study were in pages of closely printed text, whole columns of 3/8 oz, 7/8oz etc. but have gone for it this month (as much for the lengths and weights as for the maturation data) - and got it finished off today. It's clearly August when the maturation process begins to pick up speed in those years. It would be great to repeat this study today to see if the timing was still the same, but I can't see it happening.

Friday 2nd March : Being the first Friday of the month, this was an all-Tweed staff meeting of both TF biologists and RTC bailiffs. The main topic was the new policy on fish stocking and movements, which is going to the Tweed Council on Monday for approval. This will implement the new powers under the new Tweed Order to control what fish are put into the river and into ponds in the catchment. With so many alien species being spread around and the ever increasing risk of diseases and parasites it is not before time that such controls were brought in. In the afternoon have our annual visit from the students of Napier University's Aquatic Ecosystems Management course - I talk to them about Fisheries Management, Kenny tells them about the Trout and Grayling Initiative and the training of anglers to take insect samples and James shows them the Ettrick Fish Counter, now apparently repaired and about to go back into the river.