Wonderful Canada geese hunting. Good deer hunting. And proximity to some fine trout streams all helped earn Rochester, Minn., a place on the Top 10 list of Outdoor Life Magazine's best towns for hunters and anglers to live.

The magazine ranked 200 towns. Rochester, ranked No. 9, is the only Minnesota town on the Top 10 list. Roseau, Minn., was ranked No. 20.
The magazine said it included factors like decent homes and schools, good-paying jobs and everday amenities -- all within a short drive of first-rate hunting and fishing -- in ranking the towns.
Here's what the magazine said about Rochester:

"Known to the rest of the world as the home of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester is better known to sportsmen as a Canada goose hunting mecca. In fact, it is Silver Lake—a warm-water impoundment built by Charles and Horace Mayo in the 1930s—that draws resident and migrating honkers through fall and winter.

"Goose hunting isn't the only game in town. Rochester is located near the "Driftless Area," a swath of hills and dales that was left unbladed by retreating glaciers and is home to trophy whitetails, turkeys, ruffed grouse and stellar brook trout fishing. The confluence of the Zumbro River and Silver Creek near the city's center means fishing for walleyes and smallmouth bass is never more than a cast away."

Last year's second-place finisher, Lewiston, ID, moved up one place to score the top spot on the magazine's 2009 list. Lewiston heads a list of three Idaho towns in the top ten—more than any other state. Lewiston's score was elevated by the town's access to world-class hunting and fishing, as well as the economy and industry of the Pacific Coast and Asia.

Marquette, Mich, the easternmost town in the Top 10, jumped five spots to No. 2 on the list. At No. 3 (tied), Rawlins is one of two Wyoming towns in the top 10; Sheridan, which moved down four spots to No. 7 due in part to rising cost of living, is the second. North Dakota's capital, Bismarck, rose four spots to No. 6, based in part on the strength of its duck, geese and pheasant hunting. Coming in at No. 8, Pierre, SD, was hailed by Outdoor Life as the capital of "arguably the most hunter-friendly state in the country." You can see more at the magazine's website, www.outdoorlife.com.

Here's the Top 20:

  1. Lewiston, ID
  2. Marquette, MI
  3. Idaho Falls, ID (TIE)
  1. Rawlins, WY (TIE)
  1. Pocatello, ID
  2. Bismarck, ND
  3. Sheridan, WY
  4. Pierre, SD
  5. Rochester, MN
  6. Carbondale, CO
  7. Kodiak, AK
  8. Kanab, UT
  9. Cody, WY
  10. Granby, CO
  11. Page, AZ
  12. Sioux Falls, SD
  13. Saratoga, WY
  14. Colorado Springs, CO
  15. Mountain Home, AR
  16. Roseau, MN (TIE)
    20. Glasgow, MT (TIE)