Anglapro Bandit 484Pro with Yamaha F70hp

When I was a teenager mucking around in tinnies, the next boat I thought I wanted to progress to was a centre console tinny. After all, at the time (and this was 30 years ago) all you needed was a ton of gas, plenty of oil to mix it with, and a couple of MBSS (Moreton Bay Spin Sticks) with Shimano TSS4s on them, and there was virtually nothing you couldn’t catch.

I did get distracted along the way and ended up making a boat with a bow mounted electric motor… but that’s beside the point. The centre console tinny is still where it’s at when it comes to stretching your legs into water where you just wouldn’t go to in a 12ft tinny.

And the thing is, nowadays, you can do it with a bow mounted motor, casting deck, sweet electronics and all of the things my homemade boat had back in the day.

Here’s what $31,300 worth of ally Anglapro centre console looks like. For that, you get the bimini, the electric motor and Yamaha’s F70 34-stroke, and a 5-year boat warranty.

You won’t win many on-water drag races, but the economy of the Bandit is exceptional. The 85L tank will give you well over 200km of range.

Rob Gaden seemed to enjoy driving the test boat while we captured the moment. It’s a tough job.

Yamaha’s F70 is an in-line 1.0L 4-stroke outboard that has fans all over the world.

The console is quite narrow, but it does allow easy access to the front casting deck. It also folds down to get it into a garage.

Even on a day of white capping westerlies, safe harbours like the southern bay’s Peel Island are an easy trip.

You’re covered for both options when anchoring with a MotorGuide Xi5 fitted GPS locking and traditional anchoring. This rig fits both.

The traditional anchor well holds plenty of bottom gear.

There’s two hatches under the front casting deck. The main one will hold a mid-sized esky when needed. The smaller one gives access to the electric motor battery.

There’s plenty of room up front for lure casting – either in calm water or offshore.

You can run with the bimini extended for shade or you can fold it away for easier 360o casting – your choice. Some will order it without the top at all.

The rear lounge looks like it will get in the way while fishing, but it folds away neatly under the transom.

Imagine what you can shove in here! Anything from easily accessible safety gear to a pile of camping gear for a weekend getaway.

The handrail design chews into your sounder flush-mounting space a little, but there is plenty of dry storage underneath the console.

The rear bait station is simple and removable for days you don’t need it or want to tow the kids around on a tube.

And you can tow it all with the family car.

Anglapro’s Bandit centre consoles are aimed squarely at anglers at this end of the market. Ones that want more range when they can pick their days, but haven’t got $100K to spend on their ultimate bay boat.

In fact, you can pick up one of these boats and a trailer for just over $20,000 and add whatever motor you like (up to 75hp) and that’s definitely affordable for many anglers wanting to step up.

The other thing with the Bandit is that you can fold down the bimini and the console to slip it into a garage, if your place suits that. And being on a single-axled Dunbier trailer makes manoeuvring easy.

While we’re talking about trailers, you’d be crazy not to pick up your Bandit on a factory-supplied and fitted trailer. If you do, it extends the warranty to five years. That’s pretty big for a tinny.

Like most sub-5m aluminium boats, you’d still have to pick your days to have a comfortable day’s fishing. A white capping cross breeze means that you’ll need to drive clever to stay dry. They like it straight into and downwind, but quarter anything rough and you’ll need a spray jacket.

That aside, you have a garage-able boat that has a casting deck, shade, rear cockpit for fishing and a centred helm. There’s not many inshore species that you can’t chase in it.

And there’s plenty of storage in this rig. You have a massive area under the helm seat that will swallow a lot of your safety gear and there’s even more space under the casting deck that will hold a mid-sized esky. Just remember that this isn’t dry storage if it buckets down rain.

The rear lounge seat folds out of the way when you want to fish from the cockpit. Plus, it is an added luxury to have a place to sit while travelling. There’s dry storage under the console and plenty of options to store the keys, wallet and phone.

It’s not the fastest rig on the water, but you sure do get bang-for-buck at the bowser. Yamaha’s F70 4-stroke is legendary for its efficiency. It’s a 1.0L engine that gets 53km/h at wide open throttle and 6,100rpm. At that speed it gets 2.3km/L. Drop the throttle back to 4,000rpm and you get much better economy at 32km/h. At that speed, you’ll get 3.1km/L and your 85L underfloor fuel tank will get you a theoretical 250-ish kilometres.

You can see the Bandit in action on the video-test of this rig – just click the youtube link hereby to get taken straight to our video. If you want to be notified of all of our video boat tests, just subscribe to the Fishing Monthly Magazines YouTube Channel and you’ll get notifications when they go live.

Otherwise, see your local Anglapro dealer or connect with the company on their socials (search Anglapro on Instagram or Facebook). As tested, this rig weighed in at $31,300.

Specifications:
Length: 4.8m
Beam: 2.27m
Max hp: 75
Fuel: 85L
Capacity: 5 persons
Hull: 3mm
Sides: 3mm

Performance:
RPM km/h km/L
1000 7 5.4
2000 11 4.0
3000 16 2.2
3500 24 2.7
4000 32 3.1
4500 37 2.8
5000 43 2.6
6000 52 2.3
6100 53 2.3

* Yamaha GP AlloySDS Prop 14”