Monday 17th August: Out with James to do the sites on the Caddon Water. Tributaries of this size can be very variable in their juvenile populations as they need good water levels in Autumn to get fish up their full distances.  However, there were good numbers everywhere this year, mainly trout, but one site, quite well up stream, was dominated by Salmon. To the Gala fish pass afterwards, to check some measurements.

Tuesday 18th August: Electric-fishing the Glensax Burn with Kenny. The surprise here was a small burn / ditch, known as "The Cut" which is heavily canalised and sedimented in its lower reaches, though a normal but heavily shaded stream in its upper zone. The upper site turned out to have a mass of trout fry, despite the heavy shading, though as there was some Water Crowfoot (Ranunculus) in the the stream there must have been some light getting through. A confident prediction that there would be nothing in the lower section turned out to be badly wrong - another mass of trout fry & parr. As the sediment is around 20cms thick and smells bad when disturbed, there's obviously no spawning there, but there must be so many fish in the upper part that the lower can be well stocked from it. At the bottom of the Glensax, near the Tweed, we hit "silly numbers" (as James calls it), over 80 fry in our three minutes. There was Water Crowfoot there and there's nothing like it for young fish - when the electrode is put over the weed, it comes out with fish all round it, like a magnet put in a box of nails.

Wednesday 19th August: Electric-fishing the Leithen Water with Sean, in a gale - I don't think I've ever sampled in such a strong wind before. Started at the top, where the channel only a metre or so wide, getting 20-30 trout parr in the three minutes and just a few fry. Where populations are "top-heavy" like that, it shows that spawning is limited, either by habitat or because there are no large fish from the main channels reaching the area and it's only the little, local, resident trout females that are spawning, with just a few eggs each. Moving downstream, trout fry started to dominate the sites, in good numbers - and kept on being the dominant. Our rule of thumb is that Salmon should dominate in channels over 2m or so wide, but here trout fry were still dominant, and in very good numbers, when the channel had reached 4-6m wide. It wasn't until we'd got further down, to around 8m channel width that Salmon fry came to dominate - and in "silly numbers". A couple of local farmers stopped to watch, and it's predictable when people are seeing electric-fishing for the first time that that sooner or later, they are going to say "I would never have believed there were that many fish here" or similar words - and the prediction came true here after just the first sweep of the electrode which netted about a dozen Salmon fry. When showing people a bucket of Salmon fry that has come from just a few yards of water, it has to be pointed out that most of them will die, few will win through the desperate competition created by such numbers and that this is quite natural and normal, and not a "problem", it's just the way Salmon have of ensuring the survival of their fittest and best-adapted. The results have yet to be put together, but it does look as if the Leithen Cauld is restricting Salmon to the lower part of the river, delaying their passage so that few make it to the upper areas. For trout fry to dominate so far downstream in the main channel and in such good numbers does, however, mean that there must have been a really good run of Sea-trout up the Leithen last Autumn.

Thursday 20th September:  A wash out today, after the night's rain. Everyone inside and catching up with their data inputting and other admin. When it's electric-fishing every day and all day, everything else falls behind. The big news of the day is the collapse of the new repair on the Ettrick cauld - James was out checking the fish counter and phoned back in the with the news.

Friday 21st September: Everyone washed off again, with high water levels. Weekly meeting in the morning, then more writing and admin. Examined a fish caught last week on the lower river that had a bad case of Red Vent Syndrome. The fish itself was fine, a little, fat, female, Grilse but the vent was very bad looking. The usual nematode worms in the bad bit. There's a lot of this around again, and as the result of queries I've had, I've contacted the Food Standards Agency to see what their advice now is on eating such fish, but it's the same as we had from them two years ago. Kenny, having a backlog of leave and having had his programme washed out, off in the afternoon to go fishing as the spates fall.