Mercury Issues

My partner dumped me in on day one and I fired up the Mercury and immediately I knew there was an issue.  It was a bit sluggish getting out of the hole and missed and surged up to like 45 mph.  I took it off plane and pulled the cowl before I even got to my first area.  Checked the coils, looked for burned plug wires, blown fuses, all the easy stuff you can do on the water but could not figure it out.  I made the thing run up to an area I knew was big and I could use the troller most of the day and put a hook in the water.  I caught some fish but only two keeps.  I think that engine issue gets in you head somewhat.  I cannot say that if I could have checked my other spots I would have won the thing or even drawn a check but I would at least like to be on a level playing field with the rest of the guys.  I have had soooo many issues with this engine it really pisses me off.  I have been affected in either practice or during the event in at least 5 events where the entry was 1000$ or around that number.  Not cool.  Gonna let someone hear about this when I get back to the ville.  Day two put me in the same scenario, ran to an area that was big and I knew fish would be heading to not away from and well over night the bucks showed up just not the girls yet.  Caught the hell out of studs making beds and defending them.  H&H blades and tiny t rigged brush hogs caught like 30+ fish all day but only one girl about 4 which must have been in a hurry to get up there and get to work.  I would assume that today, the day after the event there are some girls moving up there too.  Somewhere on this lake yesterday there were females up on beds and I did no have the ability to run around and look for them.  Maybe I would have found them, maybe not but I would have like to have the chance.  My game plan was abit off, by like 12 to 18 hours but hey it is an improvement if only in my head.  Maybe a four stroke in in my future, maybe an etec, maybe I just got a lemon, gotta figure this thing out.