Re: Boating in TX
I live on the NW side of the DFW area. There are plenty of lakes, depending on your preference. My info is biased to my portion of DFW due to familiarity. Hopefully other posters can provide info on the lakes further east. From your question, I'm assuming you're talking about trailering, rather than mooring your boat.
I live (practically) on Eagle Mountain, in a subdivision with a private ramp. From the point of view of scenery and crowds, it's probably the best medium-large lake in the DFW area. It's on the far NW corner on your map. The fishermen tell me it's not great, but can produce decent crappie and bass once you learn the lake. It's big enough and deep enough that it's still usable in most drought conditions, but ramp fees are pretty steep (and few if any marinas allow yearly passes). On the plus side, there are several good areas for beaching/picnics.
North of Eagle Mountain is Bridgeport lake. It's also very pretty and uncrowded (a relative term, uncrowded for being close to a city of 4 million). However it is very susceptible to drought and rainfall amounts. I believe it is considered "sacrificial" to the lower lakes in the chain (EM, and Lake Worth) and will be used to keep them at minimum levels.
Moving south of EM, you'll find Lake Worth. This is a fairly shallow and murky lake, but is actually the best for skiing and wakeboarding if you can avoid the crowded times. It has several good wind breaks (shore and Goat Island) and will provide more calm water. I'm told it's a pretty good fishing lake as well.
Continuing South, is Benbrook. My experience is that the low-lying area makes it really susceptible to wind. And that's probably why a sailing club is located there. I've found it shallow, windy and with sparse shoreline for beaching, picnicking etc. I realize my few visits aren't the whole story, but I decided to skip after a few tries. ymmv
If you move here, you'll quickly discover our little secret, that we Texans built Interstate 30 just so we could get to Arkansas easily on long weekends. IMO, some of the most beautiful lakes in the country are in western AR. You'll quickly find it's worth the drive a few times a year.
Still biasing toward the west side, I'll cover the lakes within a few hours of DFW.
Possum Kingdom (I know the name's silly) is a fantastic lake for scenery and cruising. It's about 2-3 hours due west of DFW and has some good ramps and a state park. It's well worth the drive even for a day's boating.
Due north of the metroplex (that's what we call the DFW area) is Lake Texoma. This is referred to as Texas' North Coast. This lake is huge, but worth the trip. In the middle are several really pretty islands with miles of sand beaches. On weekends, some are dedicated to partiers (and you can get your fill of skimpy bikinis there) but some are relatively quiet even on the weekend. I like to go there and beach the boat w picnic/barbecue/cooler/etc. and just hang out for the day. Warning: if the winds pick up much, the waves are surprisingly large. You'll have to judge wind/waves against the size of your boat. On several weekends we've gone there and decided the waves were too large and given up.
Hope some of this helps, I wasn't sure what you were looking for (fish/ski/cruise) nor what part of the DFW area you'd be settling in.
Hopefully other members can add more detail to the east.
I'll include a few pics:
Eagle Mountain (small beach)
And one of the island beaches on Texoma (weekend in Sept)
