Dan, Lake Balboa is what we call the "toilet lake".

I may have seen one of your 48" PT boats a few years ago. Green camo, Astro motors, ping pong balls for flotation?

In fairness to Lake Balboa I was there yesterday to show a friend who goes there, one of my boats so he could take some measurements. And he made a point of telling me you could see the bottom. I looked. Sure enough, the water was clean and you could see down about 4'. Maybe they installed a clean filter? But the dang ducks and flies and poop are still everywhere!

As for an alternative, YES! There is an alternative that I and many others have been using for years and that is Hansen Dam Lake. Us old guys go on Thursday's. The young bucks with the fast electric speed machines go there on Saturday's.

http://www.laparks.org/dos/aquatic/f...ansendamAQ.htm

From your place you have two ways you could go: