Monday 23rd Feb:  An office day, organising future events and sorting out data sets. Kenny back at work after his illness but a problem for him in that his databases are on James' computer - and James' computer has been seconded out to the Gala Fish counter, the computer there having broken down. Although there are no fish to count at the moment, there are some software problems in the counter that the VAKI experts need to get through on the Internet to, hence the need for a computer there. As James is on leave, his computer went, but Kenny is having to find other things to do.  Good news for the North Sea Sea-trout programme - a German partner has been found, so sent him an outline of the work we would like to do here.

Tuesday 24th Feb:  A scale-reading day, checking readings with Barry. Almost finished 2004.

Wednesday 25th Feb: Most of the day working on my talk for the RAFTS annual conference & doing catch record analyses.

Thursday 26th Feb: Weekly trap cleaning at Peebles, then up to the Tweedsmuir trap to work out the repair and maintenace for this summer. Repairs are becoming urgent at the traps because two wet summers in a row have not given the working opportunity. Usually, July and August are the months but waiting till then has been disastrous, so this year I'm aiming for May and June as the low water months. In the late afternoon, another case for CSI Melrose -a fish caught on the lower river, with the front part of its lower jaw missing, half of one Pectoral Fin ripped off and a very deep, thin, cut (like a cheese-wire cut) over the back of the head, and right down and through the brain-case.. The puzzling things were that the three areas of damage were quite separate and what could be strong enough to cut through bone ? In the end came up with the thought that the unfortunate fish had got its head into a tangle of thin wire, single strand or chicken mesh, or a hank of angler's gut and in struggling to get itself out had had the wire or gut slice through the three different parts. What was also interesting about this fish was that it had Gill Maggots, one on one side and four on the other and yet was clearly a Springer from its small, unripe, ovaries. The scales showed 30-40% erosion, so it had been in the river some time though the scales were still quite loose and very silvery - but obviously long enough to become infected with Gill Maggots and for one of these to have full sized egg sacs. A good demonstration that even a fresh(ish) fish can have a few of these parasites.  Gill Maggots can be a sign of a repeat spawner as they are not killed off if an infected fish returns to salt water but this fish was only about 5lbs, too small for a repeating Spring Salmon and the scales showed no sign of a spawning mark.

Friday 27th February: Weekly staff meeting in the morning and some preparation for the RTC AGM on Monday. Kenny will be talking about the "Slot Limits" being brought in by some of the angling associations on the basis of what we have learned about the structure of the trout spawning populations of the Tweed from the traps. James will give a report on the fish counter results and I will be talking about the 5th edition of the Management Plan, which is under formulation at present. Rest of the day on  all sorts of bits of admin.  & e-mails.