Monday 6th October: Working on the paper for the annual technical review most of the day, then out to the Peebles trap to check what needs to be done to get it started this week.

Tuesday 7th October: This was planned to be an office day, but the mild conditions and the 120 fish that went up the Gala yesterday made it a day for trying the trap in the Gala fish pass. After an hour's work to finish the first draft of the Technical Review, out with James, first to the Ettrick counter, where he had to remove some debris from the photo flume. This turned out to be the white perspex that makes a pale background for the fish to be video'd against - it had come off its fixings and was part blocking the camera. He had a real struggle to reach it - I could see his fingers just managing to touch, but not grip, it on the video. Eventually he got it, but not without having to get his head right in the water ( at 8 C ). Treated him to a hot chocolate, bacon & egg roll and soup in the cafe at the Philiphaugh salmon  viewing centre to help him recover (all very good - a highly recommended place to eat). Off then to the Gala counter where got the trap in and waited. A lot of fish moving below the cauld but slow to come out of the fish pass at first, though got a bit more busy towards the end of the afternoon. In all, measured 9 Sea-trout and Salmon and three more shied away from going in to the trap. No Brown-trout, which is what we are really wanting to get here, but got body-depth measurements of the fish that we did catch to check the way the counter calculates the length of fish passing. Tea brought round by Barry who stays almost at the trap. Kenny away teaching kids at a Tweedstart day.

Wednesday 8th October: I went downriver to collect scales & samples etc. As 130 had gone through the Gala counter by 09.00, James and Kenny put the trap back in and got 50 or so fish, mainly Sea-trout sexed and measured by lunchtime. Some changes to the fish pass & trap to make things easier also arranged. Back in the afternoon and finished off the paper for the technical review & started writing up the latest catch records download to give a report to the beat's proprietors. Checked a Salmon brought as having "Red Vent" syndrome - it had interested the boatman as definitely a Salmon rather than a Grilse. Looked very like a typical red vent fish, but when examined it, found that it was actually the somewhat extended ovipositor that was bruised and bloody and that there were no worms in or around the vent. All the other "Red Vent" fish that I've looked at have had worms crawling all over the bloodied vent and in and around it. As there was other damage on the Anal fin and on the tail, looked very much like physical damage to the back end of the fish that had bruised the ovipositor as well. As it was a well matured female, kept the eggs for a fecundity count later (fecundity is the number of eggs a female has, which increases with size and it is not such easy data to get as in the past, when far more female fish were killed late on in the season)

Thursday 9th October: Out to give the Peebles trap its weekly clean -will get it going next week. In the office the rest of the day doing the catch records report. In the evening, back to the Philiphaugh Salmon viewing centre to do the annual training session for the volunteer guides there.

Friday 10th October: The monthly RTC / TF Joint staff meeting followed by the monthly Biologists meeting. After lunch some angling visitors washed off their beats by the latest flood and finished the day with various small jobs, sorting out papers, commenting on a RAFTS paper on Stock Assessments for a meeting with the Dept. in a couple of weeks. James entering electric-fishing data, Kenny out at Tweedstart, teaching kids about the river.