[Para]

Sorry, that did sound like a bit of a rant. I guess what this boils down to is that I need an engine that will do a couple of things:

1) I troll for striped bass with lead core line and a tube worm and if I remember I need to go REAL slow, like 1.8 mph or less....I mean just barely moving. I had an old 2 stroke (sample size of 1 I realize) and re-propped it and it still did not go slow enough. The old carbbed 2 stroke would load up and stall if I turned the idle too low.

2) I want above average water skiing performance. I realize that It will never be a Ski Nautique, but I think with the right choice I can get this to be pretty good too. Good water ski perf is all about torque, acceleration and getting up on plane quick

3) Good fuel economy. After a day of running around maybe have to put 10 -15 gallons back in.

Flat out speed does not matter one bit.

I think after reading these I may already have the answer: A 150 or a 200 hp modern 2-stroke with a much more sophisticated carb system. Are these newer 2 strokes EFI ? All things the same, a 150 hp 2 stroke probably pulls like a 200? Hp 4 stroke? Have they worked out all of that 'finicky-ness' innewer 2 strokes? Loading up, flooding, stalling, etc? How reliable are the 2 stroke oil pumps systems?