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LA is lacking in lakes. Castaic Lake north of LA near Santa Clarita is the closest I know of. Lake Arrowhead is out to the east.
Oakland area is better for boating in my opinion. I used to live in Alameda which shares a waterway with Oakland. San Francisco Bay is salty you'll need to flush for sure. If I just wanted to cruise around I loved going to the Bay. For water sports I would go to the Sacramento River Delta. 40 minute drive to Pittsburg Marina. Plus you're closer to Tahoe and Shasta
We live in North LA about 10 min from Castaic Lake. Lake is good this year but was almost unusable last 2 years because it was so low. Also Lake Pyramid is about 20 minutes north of Castaic and pretty good but smaller. We love to go to the Colorado River at either Lake Mohave in Laughlin, Nevada or further sought to Lake Havasu or Parker, Arizona. Those are all about 300 miles from where we live so we make long weekends out of the trips. Colorado River is an awesome scenic run from these lakes.
There is also a handful of decent mountain lakes about 4-5 hours north in Central California like Bass Lake, Lake Millerton, Shaver Lake, and Lake Nacimiento
@Mrbruin2k is spot on! In the summer and early fall we store our boat in Havasu. The lakes and river out that way are great! In the winter we bring it home. That way we can hit the local lakes in the winter, if the weather is nice enough. Another popular So Cal spot is Lake Elsinor, but you've got to go 3-4 hours North or East to get the better lakes.