Checking out a new lake tonight, have a tournament there in a couple of weeks and I'd only been on the place for about 3 hours a few years ago.

Running and gunning, trying to find a bit of shallow water and some fish.  Run way up the river, hit a few spots and head back down the lake.  Steering is acting very very funny.  I stop the boat and give everything a quick look, it seems to be fine.  

Start running again, something is definitely screwed up with the steering.  Wheel wants to turn sharply to the left if I let go.  Shut down again and trim the motor all the way up.

As I'm hopping onto the back deck, I notice an empty water bottle float away from the motor.

:-?

Only thing I can figure is that it got stuck there sometime on my last long run.  Once it was gone, the steering returned to normal.

hmm odd...i had a similar thing happen once but it wasnt a bottle it was an old round safety float but didnt screw up the steering while running,i couldnt turn the wheel at all lol.

I've heard of guys running down lake, have a small piece of driftwood lodge into the motor just the right way and almost wipe out from that as the wheel got jerked out of their hands.  

Is your motor "Water" cooled?   hahahahahahah  

I know that one was REALLY bad

I've heard of guys running down lake, have a small piece of driftwood lodge into the motor just the right way and almost wipe out from that as the wheel got jerked out of their hands.

It almost happened.  The wheel wanted to turn to the left on it's own.  Luckily that is the direction I needed to turn when it took off in that direction.