Trailcraft 570 Profish

All terrain fishing

Anglers who are looking at options with their fishing will love the 570 Profish from Trailcraft. The Western Australian manufacturer has been building quality fishing boats for many years now and the Profish range has seen years of development combined into a versatile, tough plate boat that is all about choice.

The 5.7m hull looks tough with its pressed plate 3mm sides, 4mm bottom and 6mm transom. Pressing plate increases the strength of the hull enormously and is not common, due to only a couple of manufacturers having the equipment to press three and four-millimeter plate aluminium.

The added strength of the Profish is evident when underway, with a real solid feel from the helm. The test day produced a decent wind chop which was carved up effortlessly, keeping all on board dry and comfortable.

The 570 Profish was fitted with the impressive 150hp E-TEC HO outboard that was spinning a stainless steel 19in prop. Punch coming out of the hole and top-end performance were both excellent and the Profish was happy to cruise at 57kmh at an economical 4000rpm.

Pushing her a little harder had her cruising at 73kmh at 5000 revs and flat out pushed her along at an impressive 80kmh at 5400rpm. Minimum planning speed in the calm water was just 18.6kmh. This means on a good day with two anglers on board, trolling speeds of 10kts can be obtained while on the plane, saving plenty of fuel.

From the helm, the Profish was extremely well behaved and the big prop of the E-TEC gave it plenty of low-speed manoeuvrability. The high sides of the Profish made it prone to being wind-blown at low speeds.

The hull tracked extremely well while planning and proved to be responsive to trim settings with no need for constant adjustment. There are five options for the placement of the first mate's seat, but during the test, we ran with two seated towards the transom, which proved to be the most comfortable plus being ideal for balancing out the hull.

With a top speed of just over 80kmh, the Profish was a brilliant all-round performer. The hull did have a loud "tinnie slap" when stationary, which is very off-putting when using the quiet electric motor to sneak up on fish and some minor cavitation of the prop when cornering at trim, but all-and-all, the hull did all that was asked of it.

TOP END TOURNAMENT
To help test the fishability of the Profish, Berkley's lure specialist and tournament angler, Matt Fraser, joined us on board to test some lure prototypes and see how well the 570 fishes.

The fit-out is classic tournament-style side console, but labelling the 570 as a tournament boat would be selling it short. The flared bow and solid construction lends itself well to offshore fishing and the open design is ideal for casting slugs at surface feeding fish and even lobbing flies.

The self-draining deck proved that the design staff at Trailcraft were adamant that the 570 will be just at home offshore as it is in the open bays and treacherous rivers up north. The test boat has just returned from fishing the Barra Classic on the Daly River in the Northern Territory, which it proved to be well suited.

Cruising along the banks of Southern Queensland's Jumpinpin Bar area, we found that the high freeboard at the bow meant that the prop of the Minn Kota was only just in the water, so waves, wake and excessive movement in the boat would lift the prop out of the water. We did manage to keep it all together in what was a stiff breeze, but it kept the man on the foot pedal busy.

The nice wide 2.25m beam and the side console configuration made casting and working fish around the deck a breeze. The side console gives the boat a very spacious feel and allows anglers to move about from the centre of the boat and not the sides, keeping everything stable. The 570 Profish also comes in a rear console configuration giving more front deck space if needed.

The side console also housed two rodholders on each side, holding up to eight rods. The front of the console has a decklight that would be ideal for night fishing from the bow. One aspect of the console that was a concern is the positioning of the navigation lights. Having the nav lights on the console is a good idea in theory, so that they are protected from being bumped on the side of the hull, but the big bow obscured the vision of the lights.

SPACIOUS CASTING DECK
The front casting deck was slightly elevated and provided a huge area to fish from. Whether fly fishing, casting lures or doing some stand-up game fishing, the casting deck was very functional.

The high sides are ideal for fishing offshore and some anglers may choose to mount a sounder on the bow for lure casting. Having a sounder mounted high means anglers are not forced to bend down to change the settings, making it both safe and convenient.

The high sides of the Trailcraft can be a distraction when working lures across the surface or other techniques that require a dropped rod tip, but having some freeboard is what makes the Profish so versatile so it's a fair compromise.

The traditional V-hull design of the Trailcraft allowed for plenty of storage under the floor of the casting deck. Up towards the nose of the bow was another storage area that housed the two deep cycle batteries for the 24V MotorGuide trolling motor. The foot pedal of the MotorGuide can be simply unplugged and kept dry in the storage bin with the batteries. Logan River Marine also had the MotorGuide's power source connected via a Walsh plug that was simply disconnected for storage and charging.

The gunwales provided extra rodholders and also had a pair of pop-out drinkholders. Just under the gunwales is sidepocket storage. Under the floor of the casting deck housed a good sized killtank with all flooring carpeted.

The transom has a door accessing a boarding ladder and swim deck. With all the space in the 570, it would double well as a recreational dive boat, especially with the good sized ladder and big handles to help divers climb on board with tanks and weight belts.

Skiers are also catered for, with the boarding ladder, and Trailcraft offer the option of a removable skipole. The livebait tank was fully plumbed and positioned on the transom as was a baitboard and deckwash. From its recent trip chasing Barra it the NT, the side rails of the test boat also supported some additional rodholders for trolling.

LOWS