Help with Boat

Took my boat out today, 2001 ranger with a 225 mercury optimax, started fine, idled fine, took off for tournament, running a little rough, though maybe cold, I made sure to warm motor up to 120 degrees, got up to 4200 RPM's, and thats it, wouldnt go any higher, even with trimming up, ran it easy to my first fishing hole. Fished for a couple of hours, started up fine, idled fine, took off, could only get 4200-4400 RPM's, ran great, not missing or running rough, just wouldnt go any higher than 4400, did this all day, just wouldnt open up. Anyone have any suggestions, dont know where to start, like I said, it ran fine, idled fine, just wouldnt open up to full RPM's. which is usually around 5800 RPM's. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The motor only has 44 hours on it, and I had it checked when I bought it in June, and it checked out perfectly.

I first would change the sparkplugs. Mine was doing the same thing the begining of the year. changed them now runs perfect.

My partner's boat did the same thing in the spring. He has a 200 vmax. Scared him to death becaus motor had just went out of warranty. Ended up needing fuel lines replaced. Cost a lot less than he was afraid it would. Seems weird, but his came on this problem suddenly like yours. Hope this helps.

Well just to give you 3 things to check lol. Mine did the same thing and it was fuel bulb. I wound having to mount it solid in a vertical position to get the check to stay in place.

Thanks for the reply guys, sounds like it might not be as bad as I thought.

if you have a hot foot make sure the adjustment is not moved or the stop bolt behind the pedal isn't vibrating and moving up to stop the pedal from going to wot

Fouled plug(s) or cracked reeds. My '01 Opti did both and had the same effects you described.