I'm in the process of planning a weeks vacation next summer with my wife, kid, parents, sister, brother in law, and their kid (kids will be 2 and 4). We're looking for a lake that we can do some good fishing in the morning/evening and ski/tube/swim during the day. I'm not looking for a lake that's so big and deep that the only way to fish is to troll, but we also don't want it to be so small that it feels like we're boating in a bathtub. Any kind of sandy beaches and restaurants on the lake is a plus. Any suggestions? We're from northern illinois and would like to keep the drive within about 4 hours, no more than 5. Thanks.

Lake Geneva or any of the sister lakes in that area, look on craigslist Milwaukee or Lake Geneva for vacation rental deals, some provide a boat slip right on the lakes! Down town Lake Geneva is wonderful!! Lake are filled with smallies, pike, lmb!!

Delavan Lake and Silver Lake(Kenosha County) are a couple more good ones. I don't know about sandy beaches though.

There's a lot of choice, really. Heck, you could fish Waubesa, Mendota, Monona and have a grand old time. Plus there's actually some pretty classy fishing on all three of them. There are always a few nice reports off of Koshkonong, it's a fun lake for the kids because they have good numbers of good sized panfish. Muskego and Pewaukee wouldn't be bad choices either.