Mack Mesa Lake, Fruita Colorado - Mack Mesa is the quieter of the two lakes in the park with good warmwater fishing opportunities and is limited to hand or electric propelled boating.
Mack Mesa is the smaller of two reservoirs at Highline State Park located above and to the northwest of Highline Reservoir. Unlike its sister reservoir, Mack Mesa’s surface is peaceful. Boating is restricted to hand or electric motor propelled craft. A fishing jetty and dock provide ready access for the physically impaired. While fishing is the main attraction at Mack Mesa, picnicking, hiking, biking, and birding are other popular activities.
Mack Mesa is heavily stocked with rainbow trout in the spring and fall only, as summer water temperatures get too warm to support a good year-round trout fishery. The heavy stockings make this a popular trout fishery from the fall through winter and into the spring. Aside from the trout, Mack Mesa is a productive warm water fishery producing good numbers of crappie and bluegill. Largemouth bass over five pounds are caught every year, along with some good sized channel catfish.
Almost the entire shoreline is readily accessible to fishers. Bass fishers have good success working the dam and around the steeper north side. Crappies frequent the deeper water off the fishing pier and the lake side of the weed beds along the west shore, where they are best caught from a boat or float tube. The north end is shallow and popular with catfishers. About a hundred or so yards from the north shore there is a section of submerged stumps and brush that produces good numbers of largemouth bass.
Getting there: Drive west on I-70 west from Grand Junction to Loma Exit, then north onto Colorado Highway 139 for six miles to Q Road. Go west on Q road for 1.2 miles, then turn north onto 11.8 Road for one mile to the park entrance. Fees: State Parks Pass - $6 daily fee Boating: Electric Motors Only. Mack Mesa Lake is restricted to hand or electric-motor powered boating only. Ice Fishing: Permitted
