Subscribe to Outdoor Life
Get 1 Year for Only $10
Best Towns 2010
Outdoor Life's third annual ranking of the best towns in America for hunters and fishermen.
How We Derive Our List Click here for the complete data >> Photo by Tyler Stableford AdvertisementRelated PhotosSUBMIT YOUR PHOTOSADVERTISEMENTAdvertisement |
Outdoorlife.com is part of the Field & Stream Network, a division of Bonnier Corporation.
Copyright © 2012 Bonnier Corp. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Print
Email
Share
Photo Gallery Comments (16)
Pocatello at #2 can't be right. Some mule deer very few upland game birds, no fish to speak of. How does that warrant a #2? Most everything to hunt and fish are found in surrounding cities and towns.
A town I think you should consider is St. Maries, Idaho. This relatively unknown gem is located in the panhandle of Northern Idaho. The St. Joe river runs through the middle of this town and provides spectacular cutthroat trout fishing. This very same and surrounding drainages produce beautiful scenery, lots of huntable elk, and trophy whitetails. The town sits on the southern end of the Couer d' Alene Lake system. These waterways funnel waterfowl making it an area hotspot for shooting limits of ducks and geese. These lakes also provide year round fishing for large and smallmouth bass, crappie, perch, kokanee and large northern pike. I think with everything that is available in the area it should be considered.
Bass Capitals? Maybe good that Eufaula, AL didn't make your top ten. Seems like we have 200-300 boats from the Pro-circuit every week or so anyway. Got signs on both ends of town that say "Big Bass Capital of the World." As far as the two hour drive goes, Lay, Mitchel, Seminole and a host of others can be reached from this friendly little place.
Couldn't find us on your top 200 list either, our wildlife refuge has great waterfowl and whitetail (QDM) and as far as big game goes, BIG Gators are there for the annual gator hunt (600 lbs +). Barbour Co. WMA has excellant whitetail, turkey and upland bird hunting as well as fishing ponds. If you can afford the fee, there are an abundance of well maintained plantations within an hours drive. Please don't tell anybody about Eufaula.
The Ozarks in Arkansas are great. We live south of Mountain Home (on the list of great towns), and west of Mountain View (White River in both places). I saw bear while driving to WalMart on two different trips through the national forest last year. We have turkey, squirrel, wild hog, and deer at our place as well. I am in the process of moving to the flat lands of north central Oklahoma where the deer and rabbit are huge! Hate to leave the 63 acres here for just a small place there, but the animals are tasty in both places....
I believe that Plattsburg, NY should be the bass capital for Lake Champlain rather than Burlington, Vt. Plattsburg sits on the west shore of Lake Champlain, has all the attributes of the lake as described, and it hosts more tournaments than its sister across the lake.
Presque Isle, Maine was included at the number 115 spot. I live 40 miles from there, and it is a great place for the Outdoorsman if you like to fish for trout and gun over thousands of ducks and geese. You are also in the heart of some spectacular moose and black bear hunting. The only problem is that Outdoor Life has them 14th under "Bass Capitals." If there are bass in Presque Isle, they are few and far between and you definately would not go there to fish for them. Bass are not popular with the majority of residents in this county, with most fishermen listing them under "trash" fish. Some of the best smallmouth bass fishing would start at the northernmost part of Washington County near Danforth, which is 75 miles south of Presque Isle. The only bass that would be in Presque Isle would have been brought there in buckets, or made it up through the St. John River in New Brunswick and into the Aroostook River watershed. OL should be more diligent with their research.
It kills me that NONE of these towns has many money management jobs! I'm so there...
It was great to read about so many Wisconsin towns that made the list of best towns. Our town was not listed, but we live on the edge of one section of the Chequamegon National Forest with some trophy animals that are on public land. I thought that I would show a picture of the 500+ pound black bear that was in our neighbor's yard on 6.3.10.
Great Choice! My father who was an avid sportsman moved to Rapid City in 1952 for that very reason.I was born and raised in Rapid City and enjoyed what the area had to offer with fishing & hunting. I'm not sure what familychef is talking about when it comes to the area being over hunted. When I was growing up you would very seldom see any wildlife around town, today there are deer everywhere. The wildlife population has increased significantly over the last 30 years due to better management practices.
Rapid City SD? In some respects, Maybe. But as a SD resident; I can tell you, eventhough we have a ton of public land available, the quality of that public land is horrible and way over hunted.
I love this list. It's one of my favorite issues of the year. Many of my favorite places in my current state of Colorado and my home state of Oregon are listed. I think you should consider the town of Pendleton, OR in your list though. There are myriad outdoor activities in the area. The town is at the base of the Blue Mountains for quick hunting trips and is quite close to the Columbia river for great fishing and waterfowl.
Great list. There are enough towns here to fill up a dozen bucket lists. Being from Mississippi though, I do have to wonder how the same 3 towns end up on the list again. We like to think the Magnolia State IS the Top 200 Towns list. We have the 2nd longest whitetail season in the country with nearly 2 million deer, over 2 million acres of open public hunting lands including 6 national forests, a have dozen of the best fishing Corps of Engineers Reservoirs, miles of streams, dozens of lakes for crappie, catfish, bass, and bream. Our turkey population is strong and are some of the toughest birds to hunt in the whole country. We may not have snow capped mountains, but we have so many options for outdoorsmen and women it boggles the mind. Come join us.
Well, my most popular comment while showing property in and around the Black Hills is that this area is one of the best kept secrets and that although I make my living selling this beautiful land, we don't want anyone to talk about it tooo much. It does show that this magazine does it's homework and they are dead on with a legitimate ranking system. I have a most desirous outdoor office. It is without doubt tough to beat the lifestyle here. Anyone needing assistance with a visit, hunt, offroad or motorcycle tour, please feel free to contact me. Good work.....I guess.
Definately some great towns listed here. I think it would be fun to travel to as many of them as possible to test this list for real.
Great listing... too bad I do not live close to any of these places.
You came close to giving away some of my favorite hunting areas-fortunately not with pin point accuracy.
Nice ranking.
later,
charlie
Post a Comment (200 characters or less)
I love this list. It's one of my favorite issues of the year. Many of my favorite places in my current state of Colorado and my home state of Oregon are listed. I think you should consider the town of Pendleton, OR in your list though. There are myriad outdoor activities in the area. The town is at the base of the Blue Mountains for quick hunting trips and is quite close to the Columbia river for great fishing and waterfowl.
Great listing... too bad I do not live close to any of these places.
Definately some great towns listed here. I think it would be fun to travel to as many of them as possible to test this list for real.
Well, my most popular comment while showing property in and around the Black Hills is that this area is one of the best kept secrets and that although I make my living selling this beautiful land, we don't want anyone to talk about it tooo much. It does show that this magazine does it's homework and they are dead on with a legitimate ranking system. I have a most desirous outdoor office. It is without doubt tough to beat the lifestyle here. Anyone needing assistance with a visit, hunt, offroad or motorcycle tour, please feel free to contact me. Good work.....I guess.
Rapid City SD? In some respects, Maybe. But as a SD resident; I can tell you, eventhough we have a ton of public land available, the quality of that public land is horrible and way over hunted.
It was great to read about so many Wisconsin towns that made the list of best towns. Our town was not listed, but we live on the edge of one section of the Chequamegon National Forest with some trophy animals that are on public land. I thought that I would show a picture of the 500+ pound black bear that was in our neighbor's yard on 6.3.10.
Presque Isle, Maine was included at the number 115 spot. I live 40 miles from there, and it is a great place for the Outdoorsman if you like to fish for trout and gun over thousands of ducks and geese. You are also in the heart of some spectacular moose and black bear hunting. The only problem is that Outdoor Life has them 14th under "Bass Capitals." If there are bass in Presque Isle, they are few and far between and you definately would not go there to fish for them. Bass are not popular with the majority of residents in this county, with most fishermen listing them under "trash" fish. Some of the best smallmouth bass fishing would start at the northernmost part of Washington County near Danforth, which is 75 miles south of Presque Isle. The only bass that would be in Presque Isle would have been brought there in buckets, or made it up through the St. John River in New Brunswick and into the Aroostook River watershed. OL should be more diligent with their research.
Bass Capitals? Maybe good that Eufaula, AL didn't make your top ten. Seems like we have 200-300 boats from the Pro-circuit every week or so anyway. Got signs on both ends of town that say "Big Bass Capital of the World." As far as the two hour drive goes, Lay, Mitchel, Seminole and a host of others can be reached from this friendly little place.
Couldn't find us on your top 200 list either, our wildlife refuge has great waterfowl and whitetail (QDM) and as far as big game goes, BIG Gators are there for the annual gator hunt (600 lbs +). Barbour Co. WMA has excellant whitetail, turkey and upland bird hunting as well as fishing ponds. If you can afford the fee, there are an abundance of well maintained plantations within an hours drive. Please don't tell anybody about Eufaula.
You came close to giving away some of my favorite hunting areas-fortunately not with pin point accuracy.
Nice ranking.
later,
charlie
Great list. There are enough towns here to fill up a dozen bucket lists. Being from Mississippi though, I do have to wonder how the same 3 towns end up on the list again. We like to think the Magnolia State IS the Top 200 Towns list. We have the 2nd longest whitetail season in the country with nearly 2 million deer, over 2 million acres of open public hunting lands including 6 national forests, a have dozen of the best fishing Corps of Engineers Reservoirs, miles of streams, dozens of lakes for crappie, catfish, bass, and bream. Our turkey population is strong and are some of the toughest birds to hunt in the whole country. We may not have snow capped mountains, but we have so many options for outdoorsmen and women it boggles the mind. Come join us.
Great Choice! My father who was an avid sportsman moved to Rapid City in 1952 for that very reason.I was born and raised in Rapid City and enjoyed what the area had to offer with fishing & hunting. I'm not sure what familychef is talking about when it comes to the area being over hunted. When I was growing up you would very seldom see any wildlife around town, today there are deer everywhere. The wildlife population has increased significantly over the last 30 years due to better management practices.
It kills me that NONE of these towns has many money management jobs! I'm so there...
I believe that Plattsburg, NY should be the bass capital for Lake Champlain rather than Burlington, Vt. Plattsburg sits on the west shore of Lake Champlain, has all the attributes of the lake as described, and it hosts more tournaments than its sister across the lake.
The Ozarks in Arkansas are great. We live south of Mountain Home (on the list of great towns), and west of Mountain View (White River in both places). I saw bear while driving to WalMart on two different trips through the national forest last year. We have turkey, squirrel, wild hog, and deer at our place as well. I am in the process of moving to the flat lands of north central Oklahoma where the deer and rabbit are huge! Hate to leave the 63 acres here for just a small place there, but the animals are tasty in both places....
A town I think you should consider is St. Maries, Idaho. This relatively unknown gem is located in the panhandle of Northern Idaho. The St. Joe river runs through the middle of this town and provides spectacular cutthroat trout fishing. This very same and surrounding drainages produce beautiful scenery, lots of huntable elk, and trophy whitetails. The town sits on the southern end of the Couer d' Alene Lake system. These waterways funnel waterfowl making it an area hotspot for shooting limits of ducks and geese. These lakes also provide year round fishing for large and smallmouth bass, crappie, perch, kokanee and large northern pike. I think with everything that is available in the area it should be considered.
Pocatello at #2 can't be right. Some mule deer very few upland game birds, no fish to speak of. How does that warrant a #2? Most everything to hunt and fish are found in surrounding cities and towns.
Post a Comment (200 characters or less)