You’ll find Glendalough State Park outside of the town of Battle Lake, Minnesota, in Otter Tail County. In Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Otter Tail County has more lakes than any other county! It shares that largesse with Glendalough, which contains four lakes tied together by Battle Creek, making for an ideal trip for the paddling fly caster. You’ll find paddle-in campsites on Annie Battle Lake, too.
During my visit, I stayed in a nearby house with friends Ken and Cindy. Ken is a heathen (he doesn’t fly fish) and Cindy doesn’t fish at all, but they did indulge my preferences. Ken borrowed a couple kayaks and asked me where I thought we should go fishing. I don’t know, I live in Florida! But when he told me that nearby Annie Battle Lake didn’t allow motors, the deal was sealed.
It turned out that the 360-acre lake is designated as a Heritage Fishery- in addition to no motors, no electronics are allowed, either. The “Heritage Fishery” designation provides special regulations that sustain a steady supply of large sunfish, crappie, and the occasional walleye for the frying pan, and large bass for the camera.
I fished there three days and did not get any large bass. I have zero doubt that they are in there, and actually ran over one that was easily five or six pounds while paddling. But I get ahead of myself.
Ken wrassles with a fish in the bulrushes.
We launched the kayaks on a lovely fall day on an equally lovely, crystal-clear lake. When I commented on the water clarity, Ken said, “There are zebra mussels here. But it was clear before they got here.”
The lake was a perfect size for paddling, too, large enough to harbor monster fish, small enough to circumnavigate in a day if the weather allowed it.
Cindy had requested a stringer of sunfish for dinner. I was glad I had my trout gear! The four-weight rod was rigged up with a black wooly bugger, which I started tossing at the nearest bed of bulrushes. Third cast- a strike!
It turned out to be a modest largemouth bass of about 12 inches, not a sunfish. But it hadn’t taken long to get a bite at a lake I’d never visited. And more casting produced more strikes- more bass, a rock bass (I had to look that one up, it had been so long since I’d seen one), and big bluegills and pumpkinseeds.
The best fishing we had was around emergent weed beds in fairly deep water (Annie Battle reaches depths of over 60 feet). Ken managed to get a northern pike, too, a feat I couldn’t match. But when we loaded the boats up several hours later, we’d gotten 30 or 40 fish between us, and had Cindy’s sunfish, too.
Big bluegills like this one are a feature of Annie Battle Lake.
The following afternoon I went to the park just to check it out. I spoke with a fisherman who’d just gotten a 30-inch pike on a Rapala, confirming my suspicion of big pike in there, too.
I was back the next day (spectacular weather once again) with my waders. I started blind-casting in open water with the wooly bugger again, garnering two strikes, one from a rock bass, one from a small pike. But it was slow. I worked my way over to the bulrush beds and tied a grasshopper pattern on.
It was a minor stroke of genius. The fish couldn’t stay off of it! I caught and released a steady string of bass, bluegills, and pumpkinseeds, perhaps missing more than I caught. The best strike came on a cast where, as soon as the bug hit the water, a bass came flying out of the water to crush it, just awesome. If there was a downside it was that there were no fish larger than two pounds or so, but let’s face it- I’m being picky here. It was fast action on a beautiful lake (that I had to myself) on a fantastic day. There was nothing to complain about. I even investigated Battle Creek, where I caught a bass and saw several others.
This largemouth ate a leech fly right under my kayak.
That evening it occurred to me that I should tie some bigger bugs. I went to Bob’s Bait Shop (no fly shops in Battle Lake!) the next day and bought a package of ten Eagle Claw Aberdeen hooks, size one, on which I tied five bunny leeches and five of my favorite craft foam bass bugs. I was certain that bigger fish would now be coming my way.
Ken and I went kayaking on Annie Battle the next day. Again, we enjoyed magnificent autumn weather. It didn’t take long to get a pumpkinseed on a leech. “Aggressive little fish!” I thought. Curious as to the sink rate, I just let the fly free-fall under the boat while I watched it sink. When it got near the bottom, I saw a pair of gills flare. I set up and was rewarded with a 14-inch bass.
Pumpkinseeds are hefty (for sunfish) and aggressive. This one ate a bunny leech.
Like most fishermen, I prefer surface strikes. There were no bugs, and no rises, but I tied the bass bug on. It took less than five minutes to catch a bass. I had visions of big bass and northerns, but the fish were all pretty much the same size as the ones I’d been getting on the smaller flies. The number of sunfish went down, the number of bass went up. It was another awesome day.
Many bass fell for my bunny gurgler!
I only fished at Glendalough three times during one week in late September. Didn’t see a crappie. Didn’t see a walleye. But if I lived near there, I’d be there all the time. What a fantastic place! If you are lucky enough to find yourself in western Minnesota, you owe it to yourself to sample the wonderful fly fishing at Glendalough State Park!
