Vacation Spots- Lakes and Fishing?

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

I'm from the midwest where family vacations in Wisconsin where all about fishing on lakes. Took my family to Grand Lake (nice pond) for a few days and my five year old fell in love with fishing. Are there any lakes around Colorado that are as big or larger than Grand Lake and have boats you can rent the day to fish? Be nice to have small town for shops for the wife to plunder and some nice bar food places for dinner? Any suggestions?

[Graves]

Have you looked into Granby? Same area and much bigger.

[Irving]

Aren't most lakes bigger than Grand Lake?
I hear it is the deepest natural lake in the US though.

[Graves]

Aren't most lakes bigger than Grand Lake?

If you're talking natural lakes in Colorado; no.

[Irving]

I guess I should have said, "Yes, there should be a few to choose from."

[Ah Pook]

I hear there is a bigger pond over in Nebraska. :D

[Ranger]

Having grown up in the south, I came to Colorado and wondered why everyone called these ponds "lakes" :). I'm used to putting a boat out and taking many days or even weeks to explore the lake, but here it can be measured in hours mostly. Besides, my fish of choice is Crappy, the best eating and almost the most fun to catch outside of some nice cats or bass.

[cowboykjohnson]

I think Grand lake is the largest natural lake in Colorado.
Blue mesa reservoir over by Gunnison is big and I think you can rent boats.
Lake Estes you can rent boats at but it's not very big.
Carter lake by Loveland is decent size and you can rent boats there.
I'm sure there are more but those are the ones off the top of my head.

[SNAFU]

Dillon Lake

Colorado Lakes

http://www.fishexplorer.com/lakenav.asp

[Bitter Clinger]

Try taylor park. Its a reservoir but its big.

[theGinsue]

I agree on Taylor Park. Good sized, you can rent boats and good fishing, but no shops nearby for your wife to go shoppig.

That leads me to saying (IMHO) your best bet would be Blue Mesa outside Gunnison. Gunnison is the key here. Lots of shooping for your wife and (last I heard) they do rent boats on the Blue Mesa which is a huge lake by CO standards.