Monday 6th September: The RTC's Quarterly meeting at Kelso in the morning, then afterwards out with James to knock off a couple of outstanding Teviot electric-fishing sites, which meant a quick change by the roadside out of collar and tie and in to working gear. A late evening work session afterwards, organising the annual Ettrick and Yarrow electric-fishing, with an ominous forecast for rain to think about as well

Tuesday 7th September: The forecast was right about the overnight rain, with the top of Ettrick rising, but hoping that it was also correct about the rain moving away and clearing by lunchtime delayed the teams setting out till mid-morning, when, indeed, the rain went off. James off OK, but Kenny found his vehicle had died on him so re-arrangements necessary - fortunately, he was teamed up today with a keeper from Buccleuch Estates, who had a 4-wheel drive vehicle, so all we had to do was get him and the gear to the meeting place. Kenny was down to do today's most upstream section on the Ettrick, so switched him to a Yarrow section, which being below the loch was unlikely to rise much with the amount of rain there had been. I went out with Shaun to do a lower Ettrick section, but prepared to switch to the Yarrow too,  if it started to rise. As it turned out, it wasn't a bad day after all and though the lower Ettrick did rise a couple of inches, it soon started to fall and being at such a low level anyway, it didn't create any problems and everyone got their sections done. In the evening, up to Pitlochry for a Fisheries Code of Good Practice drafting meeting.

Wednesday 8th September: Today's meeting was a joint one with the group drawing up the Code of Best Practice for Stocking. The General, Salmon and Trout sections for the Fisheries Management Code were reckoned to be almost ready for circulation as a first draft to the various organisations and bodies participating, but the Stillwater, Coarse and Grayling sections still needed more work.

Thursday 9th September: Out do do the Fry Index sections on the Tima and the Rankle, but the water had risen overnight and though falling and now only a couple of inches above the level its been at, it was very, very, dark and peaty. Only just doable, but managed all but one site - though also could not do the two at the bottom of the Tima as someone obviously working in a ditch in the forestry upstream and the silt made a bad situation impossible.  Kenny and Shaun also out, on the main Ettrick, and again, only just possible to do it. Almost every year we have to change a few sites as Riffles move, but usually it only means switching sampling to the next Riffle upstream or downstream. This year however, we've encountered some real "disappearances" where Riffles have gone and there's no others in the local area to switch to until too close to the next site. Checking through the recording sheets brought in, find that in half a zone (10 to 12 sites) on the middle Ettrick, most Sites/Riffles have been reported as having disappeared and not being replaceable. I find it hard to believe that there could have been so much change over several kms, so will have to go and look at this area myself.

Friday 10th September: Weekly staff meeting in the morning, then out with James to look at the part of the Ettrick where so many Riffles seem to have disappeared. On the way up, get a phone call from Kenny who is on his way down from the topmost part of the Ettrick where his electric-fishing has been rained & flooded off & when we meet, I swap James for Shaun, who was one of the team who encountered the missing Riffles, to get a first-hand guide to the situation. In effect, what they found is true, where we had half a dozen sampling sites on Riffles, there is now only one "good" Riffle, a couple of passable ones (in different places from where our sites were) and the rest is rather flat and featureless "Glide" & some smooth and shallow Runs. Not experienced this scale of change before, and we've been doing this since 1997. Hopefully what one Winter washed away, another Winter will wash back because it's certainly reduced the amount of prime Fry habitat in this area.  Knock off a couple of electric-fishing sites with Shaun afterwards and then back to the office.