BistroBiH: Ribolov na jezeru Vrutak, Hutovo

Lake Vrutak is an artificial reservoir created by the construction of the Čapljina hydroelectric power plant in 1979. It serves as the upper compensatory basin for the plant. It is located near the town of Hutovo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the western end of the Popovo Polje. The lake covers an area of 70 hectares and has a volume of 7,200,000 cubic meters. It is supplied with water from the Trebišnjica River through a 65-kilometer-long concrete canal, and the water is conveyed from the lake to the power plant through an 8.1-kilometer-long, 8-meter-diameter canal. Lake Vrutak is situated in the former Vrtok field, a part of the Lower Field in the extreme western region of the Popovo Polje. It gets its name from the only "living water" in the lower part of the field. In its center, there used to be a well that never flowed as a stream but always remained a well. The lake is entirely made of concrete, including its bottom and shores. It has an average depth of 4 to 5 meters. The concrete bottom is covered with a thin layer of grass. The canal that supplies the lake with water runs precisely through its middle. It is around 5 meters wide and more than 15 meters deep. There are some underwater elevations, called shoals, formed by deposited soil in several places. At the head of the lake is the turbine where water from the Trebišnjica River enters, passing through the concrete channel across the Popovo Polje before that. The lake functions as an upper compensatory basin (water storage) for the reversible Čapljina Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant. Like many other water bodies in our region, Lake Vrutak has also faced several ecological incidents. One was recorded in 2011 when all the water from the lake was drained to carry out some repairs to the bottom due to water leakage. At that time, local anglers informed us that a significant number of large fish died, including specimens of common carp weighing over 30 kg, grass carp over 20 kg, ide weighing 2 kg, as well as roach, bleak, silver bream, catfish, and trout. In December 2018, another horror was witnessed when the lake was filled with floating pig carcasses. To make matters worse, this was not the first time that corpses were found in Lake Vrutak; discarded dogs were also known to be found in the lake. Although the pigs had yellow markings on their ears, it was not reported whether those responsible for disposing of them in this manner were found and penalized.