Well, no pictures to share this time.  I got to the lake in the wee hours this morning to get a practice day in before our club tourney this weekend.  I was going to take the opportunity to get my dad out with me today.  Dad called me about 4am to tell me that he was on his way but since he's been in Florida since February, his fishing license was expired (they expire on March 31st here in NM regardless of when you buy it) and he needed to get a new one when Wally World opened. 

He helped me put the boat in and told me he'd give me a call when he got back to the dock.  I ran a short distance over to a spot I'd staked out last weekend and just like last weekend, I saw shad being busted all over the place.  I started trying to figure out what I need to use to get the fish to bite.  Tried a Spit'n Image and a floating Rat-L-Trap with no luck and then the phone rang.  My dad was ready for me to pick him up.

I idled out of the cove I was working and opened it up.  After a minute or two, the RPMs on my motor dropped, then picked up, then dropped and finally it died out.  I started having issues with the engine getting fuel last weekend and I changed out my primer bulb hoping that would fix it but obviously it did not. 

I got the motor running again, ran back over to the launch to get my dad and it ran fine.  Got him on board and started to head back to my spot.  As soon as I tried to put the boat on plane, it died out again.  I decided to do the wise thing and turned around and loaded the boat back on the trailer and took it to the mechanic. 

So no tourney for me this weekend and worst of all, I didn't get to take my dad out with me.  I'm trying to get him more into bass fishing.  He is a hardcore fly fisherman and also enjoys saltwater fishing but has never been big on bass fishing.  Today didn't help my cause any  >

Sounds like an ignition coil maybe?

My guess was the fuel pump but we shall see.  One thing I know, I'm going to be a sad panda until I get my boat back

yep ... fuel lift pump sounds like a likely place to start looking

Must have been contagious this weekend.  I was jogging over to our meeting spot for blast off before the tourney Saturday and had my steering cable break. 

Did you get it fixed in time to fish the tourny?  I was pretty bummed when they told me they probably wouldn't even be able to look at my rig until after the 1st.  Then I figured if they can't fix it right now, what difference does it make if it's 10 days?

Negative. 

Well I got an email yesterday that stated the winning weight for the 2 day tourney was 11 pounds and change.  Not saying I would have won because the conditions last weekend were pretty brutal (high wind) but man, it was wide open and I had fish staked out