Fishing and Fisheries Sub-Collections

History of the Sub-Collection

The sub-collection dedicated to fishing and fisheries is the second youngest sub-collection of the Museum of Forestry, Hunting, and Fishing in Ohrada, near Hluboké nad Vltavou. The oldest part of this sub-collection consists of the original collection created at the Ohrada Chateau. It includes dry specimens of fish created in the second half of the nineteenth century by Václav Špatný. The second largest part of the sub-collection consists of the fishing collections of the Agricultural Museum gathered with the participation of Professor Antonín Frič for the Jubilee Land Exhibition in Prague in 1891. In 1961, fishing collections of the Agricultural Museum were moved to the Ohrada Chateau and the two collections were merged. In the 1970s, it was decided that a permanent exhibition on ‘The Development of Fishing and Pond Management’ would be created at the Ohrada Chateau for the Agricultural Museum. For this exposition, new items were gathered, especially tools used in pond keeping and pond management, as well as the tools used by the last professional fishermen on the Labe and Vltava Rivers. Collecting activities focused also on the history of trout fishing, sport fishing, as well as fishing education and research in the territory of the current Czech Republic. The exhibition opened in 1977. After this date, the fishing sub-collection grew slowly, mostly by adding items acquired by change. After 1988, the sub-collection started to be systematically expanded by mounted specimens of species of fish and other aquatic animals not yet covered by the sub-collection.
 

Important Items Belonging to the Sub-Collection

Plaster models made by Antonín Frič, Kuffer’s mugs (for fish incubation), nets for catching salmon in lakes, but also a collection of the fisherman J. Hulík: a vertical net, a large net encompassing one third of a circle, a throwing net, a large bag-shaped net, a large net attached to two poles, and an oak boat.