Saturday 27th July : A busy day at the Kelso Show, in great heat. A lot of children did the quiz around the display and earned their badges showing their favourite Tweed fish or "minibeast" and fish-shaped sweetie.
Monday 28th July: The whole day spent reading through material Kenny has written up for the clubs in the Tweed Trout & Grayling Initiative
Tuesday 29th July: In the office catching up on admin in the morning. An angling diary covering the period 1952-82 and mainly about the Whiteadder has been lent to us. We'll abstract and computerise the data, which is of the greatest importance as such diary data shows what anglers really caught in the past for comparison with the present day. We are always looking for such diaries and this is only the fifth we've found. In the afternoon out to the Peebles fish trap to re-mount the temperature recorder at a better site ( & with a new battery ) & get the puncture I got at the weekend repaired.
Wednesday 30th July: Spent the morning in the office trying to get some budgetting done for the proposed North Sea Sea-trout programme. In the afternoon, out to the Upper Tweed trout traps with Steven. Checked the temperature recorder at the Peebles trap, with its new battery, & found it hadn't started as programmed as the laptop date and time used to re-launch it had not been correct. Sorted this out then a great battle to get the sluice gate open, one of the timbers having swollen tightly into the runners. Ended up having to saw through it under water and got thoroughly wet, though the water a pleasant temperature. At the Tweedsmuir trap, checked the temperature logger replaced last week to make sure it was working properly and that the new seal was watertight.
Thursday 31st July: In the office, trying to budget the North Sea Sea-trout work
Friday 1st August: Kenny & James's electric-fishing washed out. The monthly joint RTC / TF staff meeting. Catching up on admin in the afternoon. Steven scanning the fishing diary from the Whiteadder. A good many entries from fishing the Findhorn around Tomatin which we will transcribe and then offer to the appropriate Trust - also useful comparison data for us.