LAKE CITY — Before sunrise, anglers began showing up to fish Lake Pepin from shore at Lake City.
Mesa Sin and Danny Kim from Rochester staked a claim to the end of the old breakwater jutting out from U.S. 61 into the lake. "I'm no expert on fishing, but I love fishing," Sin said. He believes fish bite better around sunrise.
A bit later, Chealong Chhem and his buddies Jason Peng and Veasna Phan, all of St. Paul, went to the fishing areas on the new pier that helps form the outer harbor at the Lake City Marina. They caught crappies, some rough fish and a white bass.
Throughout the region, anglers are going to convenient places to fish from shore, often at fishing piers built by the Department of Natural Resources or other governmental agencies.
According to the DNR's access finding several years ago, the state has 5,493 fishable lakes with about 290 fishing piers and 3,000 public water accesses where people can also fish. Of course, trout anglers have hundreds of miles of places to fish on easements or public property.
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Here is a partial DNR list of public fishing piers in this region:
• Fillmore County: three piers of Camp Creek along the Harmony-Preston Valley Trail and one in Lanesboro at the Bass Pond.
• Goodhue County: Lake Byllesby west of Cannon Falls and Pottery Pond in Red Wing.
• Mower County: Eastside Lake and Austin Mill Pond in Austin and Rowe Pit just outside LeRoy.
• Olmsted County: Several at Chester Woods (the county park), Mill Creek at Chatfield, Willow Creek Reservoir and Foster Arend Lakein Rochester.
• Wabasha County: At the Lake City Marina and at Malone Lake in Wabasha (it's an old Zumbro River channel).
• Winona County: Lake Winona in Winona, along the Whitewater River in Whitewater State Park, Goodview Lake and Jensen's Pond in St. Charles.
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