Minnesota
Fed up with high-tech fishing? This central Minnesota lake is for you.
At a time when anglers are debating if advanced underwater sonar technology is wrecking the sanctity of fishing, wetting a line on Annie Battle Lake is becoming more of a throwback than ever.
Nestled inside Glendalough State Park in Otter Tail County, this deep and clear 334-acre lake is set aside by the Department of Natural Resources as a haven of old-time fishing. All motors and electronics are banned. During ice fishing season, powered augers also are prohibited.
On Annie Battle, you’ll find your fish with the help of a canoe, kayak or rowboat. Is live bait allowed? Yes, but if you’re fishing for the lake’s prized crappies and bluegills, you can only keep up to five – not the statewide standard limit of 10. Largemouth bass, another protected species in the lake, must be released immediately after catching (and photographing).
“I think a lake like Annie Battle is becoming more of a treasure,’’ said Erik Osberg, an Otter Tail County employee and chairman of the 2021 Governor’s Fishing Opener. “You’re not driving around, looking at a screen. It’s a place where we can all go to experience fishing the way our ancestors did.’’
Glendalough State Park Director Jeff Wiersma said the so-called heritage fishery was something of an experiment when it opened to the public in 1997 with its non-motorized, non-”aqua view’’ regulations. It’s one of two such lakes in Minnesota, the other: Black Bass Lake at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, he said.
“It was experimental in the beginning, but Annie has been a huge success story,’’ Wiersma said. “I get lots of people who say there should be more lakes like this.’’
Encircled by natural shorelines and a 3.2-mile walking path free of private development, the lake attracts serious crappie anglers in May and June and an abundance of families throughout the summer who enjoy wake-free swimming, boating and fishing. Walleyes inhabit Annie Battle, but only in light density. Anglers also target bluegills and northern pike.
TWO HARBORS — Minneapolis native Anne Drolet had never ventured north of Duluth before her excursion up the North Shore alongside her friend, Janet Kilsdonk, on Thursday.
After stopping for a slice at Betty’s Pie along Highway 61, the two made a point to visit Gooseberry Falls Park to experience the sights and sounds of the historic landmark, which was recently named the nation’s Best State Park in the
USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards
.
As a first-time visitor to the historic park, established in 1937, it didn’t take long to understand why.
“With the waterfalls (and) just the feel of the space, it feels like a place you would meditate, and so it feels very spiritual in its own way,” said Drolet while standing steps away from the lower falls.
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A 68-year-old Minnesota woman missing for three days was found alive almost completely submerged in mud over the weekend, her rescuers told a local news station.
Kathryn Jane Woessner, of Alexandria, was found west of Backus, around 80 miles away from the city where she lives, on Saturday, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said this week.
Woessner had been reported missing and had last been seen on June 3, the sheriff’s office said.
The two people who found her, Adam Sandbeck and Mike Gravalin, told NBC affiliate KARE if Minneapolis that they had been riding an off-road vehicle on trails around Backus and Hackensack on Saturday when they found Woessner’s van stuck in the muddy area.
A closer examination showed that there was more than just a vehicle — what they said they thought was a body in a puddle next to the van.
“And then she whispered, ‘Help me,’ and it scared the crap out of me,” Sandbeck told KARE.
All that could be seen was “the round part of her face, like her mouth, her lips,” he told the station. The two men pulled her out and called 911, they told KARE.
Woessner told Sandbeck that she’d fallen in the puddle, which she said “was like quicksand,” he told the station.
She was taken to a hospital after being rescued, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Minnesota
Kyler Murray, J.J. McCarthy to continue Minnesota Vikings QB competition into training camp
The challenge for Kyler Murray as a newcomer to the Minnesota Vikings learning a complex offense has an extra dimension.
He has to take turns.
Committed to staging a legitimate competition for their starting quarterback position, at least during this less-urgent part of the offseason, the Vikings have divided the time in drills with the first team between Murray and incumbent J.J. McCarthy. That’s the way they’ll start training camp next month, too.
“You’ve got to put it together in a way that challenges those guys and see who responds, see who handles adversity well, and ultimately see who elevates the offense,” coach Kevin O’Connell said after the last practice of minicamp on Thursday. “It’s an open competition, and I want to see these guys in very unique and in many ways difficult circumstances elevate themselves and their games to help the Minnesota Vikings.”
There’s no deadline for the decision, O’Connell said, though for the Vikings to be at their best for the Sept. 13 regular-season opener against the Green Bay Packers they’ll likely declare their starter at least a couple of weeks in advance of that. The frequency and quality of repetitions during open-to-the-public practices in training camp will undoubtedly stoke the embers of speculation that fuel the popularity of this sport, but the coaching staff has a plan for putting both quarterbacks in as many meaningful situations as they can once the pads come on in camp.
“I wouldn’t read much into who gets what on which days,” O’Connell said, well aware of the intense scrutiny on this team’s quarterback depth chart for a third straight year since McCarthy was drafted 10th overall in 2024. “I know me saying that was the waste of the time that it took to say it, but we’re going to put together a way where we can put them in the different aspects of situational football that they need to get.”
Murray, the first overall pick in the 2019 draft who was cut by the Arizona Cardinals and signed with the Vikings for the veteran minimum salary for this year so he can try to cash in as a free agent for 2027, has been the presumptive favorite for the job even if he’s newer to the system.
“Now having to split reps, me already being behind, not getting the amount of reps you would typically want a guy to get learning an offense, that’s probably the toughest part,” Murray said this week.
Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said McCarthy’s offseason has “been a continuous upward arrow for him.” From O’Connell to wide receiver Justin Jefferson, all of the Vikings who’ve been publicly asked about McCarthy’s progress from his mostly rough 2025 debut have remarked about sharpened skills and fundamentals. But at some point, if Murray becomes the team’s long-term choice, McCarthy might well find himself playing elsewhere.
“I think I’ve made it very clear I wanted to be here, before I got here. I love this organization. I love the coaching staff. I absolutely love these players to death,” McCarthy said. “This is where I want to be. I feel like I can thrive in this system.”
The Vikings clearly still believe that to some degree, at least if patience were not part of the equation.
“It’s probably going to end up being a difficult decision,” O’Connell said, “just based on where I know those guys are going to go.”
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