Idle ok but no speed

Due to commitments my first boating day was today . I have a 2003 20ft Stingray with a Volvo 4.3GL-A.
I winterized it in September of 2016. I have been running the engine in the yard every week or so since June. The engine starts right up and idles about 600RPM. Put the boat in today, started it and moved away from the dock at about 4Kts for about 8 minutes. Increased speed to get up on plane and the snap was not there. The engine was running rough, skipping I guess, and then a popping sound. The boat never got up on plane so I idled back and ran slow for awhile then tried it again... same thing but this time it did not pop.
That ended the day on the water. Once home I changed the fuel/water separator filter. When I put the gas from the filter in a glass jar it was a deep yellow sort of orange color. Let it stand for a while but did not see
any water. Could this be stale gas and that is why the engine did not run good above idle?

I added Sta-Bil Storage to a nearly full tank of gas when I winterized it as I always have.
I thought the color of the gas was because of the Sta-Bil but when I checked the gas I have for my lawn mower that has the "add to each tank" Sta-Bil it was a clear color. The spark plugs look ok. Any ideas?

Sad no one here could offer any ideas on my problem. I drained all but about 4 gallons of fuel out of the tank and changed the fuel/water separator filter. Added 17 gallons of fresh fuel and the boat is running great. Lesson learned... do not use gas that has been in your tank for a year even if you used Sta-Bil Storage when you laid it up. Happy Boating everyone!

I never saw your original post, but looks like you had a pretty good feel of the situation from the get-go. Don't worry about the lack of posts on this one. Most of the time you get a good deal of suggestions from a lot of great people who really take pride in helping others. Next tie yo run into an issue, post it up, and I'll bet your results will be much better next time. This board is a life saver.

Chris Rohde said:

I never saw your original post, but looks like you had a pretty good feel of the situation from the get-go. Don't worry about the lack of posts on this one. Most of the time you get a good deal of suggestions from a lot of great people who really take pride in helping others. Next tie yo run into an issue, post it up, and I'll bet your results will be much better next time. This board is a life saver.

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Thanks Chris. I have reaped valuable information from this forum and know I will again as a matter of fact I am about to post another problem that has been bothering me for awhile.