The harvest of the Vrkoč pond near Ivaň in the Brno area took place from 30 October to 1 November 2026 as a festive three-day event. The pond belongs to Rybníkářství Pohořelice, which supplies the pre-Christmas market with carp from it and from other company ponds [1][2].
The pond
Vrkoč was founded in 1552 and has an area of 156 hectares. It is the second largest pond in the Pohořelice pond system and one of the three largest company ponds in which market fish are raised. In autumn, fish are also harvested in the neighbouring Novoveský pond and in the Dolní Jaroslavický pond on the Thaya in the Znojmo area [1][2].
Course and prices
Visitors could buy a fresh carp or grass carp straight from the tub; portioned fish and fish snacks, such as a carp burger or chips made from carp and pike-perch, were also available. At the harvest, a kilogram of first-class carp cost 120 crowns, and a selected carp was ten crowns more. According to both sources, the price on the pre-Christmas market also depends on the prices set by traders, and a family will pay a few crowns more for its Christmas Eve carp than in previous years [1][2].
Effect of the drought
According to Ivan Šútovský, the director of Rybníkářství Pohořelice, the company will supply the pre-Christmas market with the same quantity of carp as in previous years, around 600 tonnes, but because of the drought the fish did not gain as much weight as would be desirable. He said the smaller volume of water also caused higher losses to predators such as cormorants, otters and herons. This year's catches of market fish are expected to be about ten percent lower than last year, because roughly fifty hectares of water surface were left without water [1][2].
The company had greater problems on the smaller ponds with stocking fish, some of which it had to harvest early. The ponds lie mainly on the rivers Jihlava and Thaya below the Dalešice, Mohelno and Vranov reservoirs and Znojmo. Šútovský expects that the drought may show in weaker production in the next year and the year after, because raising carp takes three to four years [1][2].
According to Šútovský, the company is responding to a change in the market, where interest in live fish is falling and interest in frozen and chilled processed fish is growing; last year it therefore invested in expanding its processing plant and also supplies supermarkets [1][2].
Sources
- Brněnská Drbna — 30 October 2026
- iDNES.cz: Brno — 2 November 2026