Morning Would

Scents do work. My company used to make the Xtreme Scents fish attractants and Herring (made from Fish Oil) was great for Kings, Steelies and Cohos. We sold the company but I have a private stash that I use to this day. A lot of guys use WD-40, because the lubricant in WD-40 is fish oil. Keep Rubbing!

Sounds like a potential carb problem. Had a 5 liter mercruiser in my Pursuit 2500 and ended changing the Rochester carb out for an edelbrock marine carb. The Rochesters can develop a fuel leak in one of the plugs inside the carb and it drips into the intake stalling out the engine. with the edelbrock i was able to idle at 400-425 rpm, and troll as low as 1.1 mph. If the boat sits for a while and is hard to start, that might your issue. All the fuel leaks into the engine and the bowl has to be refilled. That was my experience anyway.