In Tucson itself, there a few small fishing lakes in the city and county parks. I would really call them big ponds----we are in the desert after all. About an hour south is Patagonia Lake where there is fishing and small boats allowed. If you want to use power boats and ski, you would have to go north a couple of hours to Apache and Roosevelt Lakes. Those lakes have camp grounds and also marinas where you can store your boats year round. There is also Lake Pleasant which is somewhere near Phoenix, but I have never been there. I have a summer home up in the White Mountains and many fishermen go there to fish, but most of the lakes will only allow trolling motors. There are several lakes in that area, such as Big Bear, Little Bear, Showlow, Hawley, Big Lake. But, if you are from a place where there are very large lakes such as Minnesota, Oklahoma, the Ozarks or around the Great Lakes, etc. you will probably feel like I do and clasify most Arizoan Lakes as big ponds. Of course our largest lake is Lake Powell in the far northern part of Arizona. Now that is a real lake! But it is quite a ways from Tucson. I hope this helps. I'm not a boater or a fisherman, so someone else may have more information about this than I do.
