water pump troubleshooting

i finally rebuilt my 87 150 and put it on the boat and hooked it up. i still have to fine tune everything but i did get it to turn over. it ran a little rough for about 90 seconds. i shut it down because i saw no water from the tell tale. i put a new waterpump in during the rebuild....intake tube where lower and midsection connect was lined up. when i turn the water on to the ears i get water spitting out everywhere from the ears.. when i started it the water spitting from around the ears decreased. that tells me that water is being sucked in...no? why no water from the tell tale? i pulled the hose off at the plastic fitting and blew through it. seems all clear. but thats the opposite way the water is flowing. what can i do to troubleshoot this? i couldnt tell if it was getting hot because it only ran for a short time...

i may have answered my own question. looks like my actual plastic fitting at the end of the hose was clogged. hopefully thats all