Saturday & Sunday 2nd & 3rd May:  On the morning shift at the Tweed Angling Fair at Kelso, then on fish traps.

Monday 4th May: Out very early to do the traps as have a lot to do today. Nothing at the Peebles trap, where the water is getting very low. A good sample at Tweedsmuir though - we've had up to 4,000 young trout emigrating out of this burn in a year, so usually get something at this time of year. Back to the office and spend the rest of the day getting presentations on Spring Salmon ready for the RTC committee tomorrow. Heard at the Angling Fair that the run in Ireland seems to be normal, which points the finger at a local, North Sea, factor affecting the eastern Scottish rivers rather than at something in the high seas feeding grounds.

Tuesday 5th May: An RTC committee meeting in the morning, to discuss the Spring Salmon situation and policy. Afterwards, a tag from a salmon caught at Bemersyde in the morning brought in - but not one of ours ! It was a Faskally Freshwater Laboratory tag, so probably put on the fish as a Smolt on the North Esk, but will get the details later when get a reply to the e-mail I sent. Out to do the traps afterwards. In the evening make some preliminary investigations of the possibility of using Ultrasound scanning equipment to sex fish (as is done in some hatcheries)  with Kenny and a local vet, whose equipment it is. Will try later in the year with larger fish as easier targets to start with. Can identify stomach, spleen, gut etc, but need eggs as targets.

Wednesday 6th May: Out early to do the traps - a small spate overnight so a chance of big catches. The Yarrow trap, however, disabled and damaged by the amount of algae brought down, so nothing there. A few smolts at Peebles - no rise of water there and about 80 small Brownies at Tweedsmuir. One of the things that we've learned at this trap is that a very large number of trout can leave a burn at just 80-90mm, after only one Winter. This means that when we turn up to electric-fish such burns in the Summer, very large numbers can have already left, making the Parr numbers we find underestimates in  terms of the total production of these burns. Back to the office and get started on the Salmon part of the draft I'm doing for the Code of Good Practice in Fisheries Management.