Livewell working intermittently

I have a 96 BassTracker whos livewell is giving me trouble. At the
start of the day it works fine. I turn it off when motoring then turn
it back on and it wont pump any water into the livewell, it seems to
work after trying it several times and eventually will pump. The pump
always works and goes on everytime but isnt pumping water into the
livewell. I put a new pump in and the new pump does the same thing.
I checked all the connections and all seem fine, is there air getting
into the hose somehow? Any suggestions would be great.

thanks
Chip