Mercury 8HP 2-Stroke smokes a sputters when throttled

[jguild45]

I've got fresh properly mixed gas, new plugs, thoroughly cleaned carburetor, and I believe, good spark (I got shocked pulling each sparkplug wire off independently while running. After pulling the plug wire off, the motor died, with each wire .) The only carb adjustment I have access to is the slow speed main jet which I turned all the way in, then 1 1/2 out (ran better with 3 turns out.) The motor starts first pull and idles great. As soon as I manually give it throttle via the linkage, it bogs down and smokes. I tried the carb adjustments with the throttle open as much as I could without it dying out. The top plug is wet and black and the bottom plug is dry and black. I'm ordering a compression tester because I've always wanted one. We'll see....