Does Minnesota, "The Land of 10,000 Lakes," or Michigan, "The Great Lake State," have the most lakes? It's a good question, and one that has been tossed around for a long time by tourist and resort people. The answer depends mostly on how you look at it.

Michigan officially lists a total of 11,037 inland lakes, which would seem to close the question without further argument. Minnesota, however, seems to have picked the slogan of 10,000 lakes without the bother of making an accurate count of her waters. Depending upon how lakes in the Gopher State are tallied, there could be 5,000 or 20,000.

One source credits Minnesota with having more than 11,000 lakes with an inland water area of 4,059 square miles, or 2,597,760 acres. An unofficial tabulation many years ago established the figure of 11,007, from which the apt slogan was coined.

This would still seem to leave Michigan with a lead of 30 extra lakes, but the figures are misleading. It so happens that in both Michigan and Minnesota, any lake of less than 25 acres is judged to be just a pond. As such, it is not counted in the total number of lakes. Both states have a great many lakes with much smaller acreage than 25, and these are the ones that have caused the differences of opinion.

Minnesota probably has more small ponds, owing to its type of terrain that left it covered with countless pothole lakes or ponds. This likely leaves Michigan in second place, where the total number of lakes, ponds, and potholes is concerned.

None of this, however, is apt to bother any Michigan fisherman. This state still has enough lakes that any angler who spent every day of the year fishing a different lake, could not fish all of them in 30 years. And, if a fisherman was still not satisfied with that amount of water, he could carry his activities onto the 36,350 miles of rivers and creeks, most of which have some sort of fishing, too.

Add to that the 3,131 miles of Great Lakes coastline and consider the variety of trout, salmon, and warmwater fish species inhabiting this vast freshwater reservoir, and it really gets impressive. In total number of acres of water within a state boundary, Michigan will leave Minnesota far behind any old day. But then, it's unlikely that will bother Minnesota fishermen, either. Each state has its own attractions and claims.

Come right down to it, the average fisherman just goes on, day after day of fishing season, concentrating on the same one or two lakes he knows best. Chances are, he's passing up better fishing on some other body of water not too far off, but his habits prevent him from going exploring.

There are a few anglers, of course, who seem to enjoy checking out new lakes. Even so, is there anybody who has ever fished every lake in a single county of Michigan? That would be extremely doubtful in Oakland County, for example, which has hundreds of lakes. In fact, it leads the state in that department.