Video: Haines Hunter 525 Prowler Video Review

The TrailerBoat Torture Test saw four trailerable fishing boats head up from the southern States to Far North Queensland. Loaded with fishing gear, camping equipment, and pretty much all the outdoors contraptions they could carry, the objective was to test the gear to the limit and see how it performed in Australia’s harsh tropics — and do a lot of fishing too.

Among the boats was a Haines Hunter 525 Prowler belonging to TrailerBoat contributor and fishing fanatic Jack Murphy. Any fisherman knows what a long history Haines boats have in Australia, so it’s no surprise we had one along for the ultimate torture test, travelling all the way from Sydney. At the time of the Torture Test in early 2012, the Haines Hunter 525 Prowler had been recently updated.

The Haines Hunter 525 Prowler very quickly became one of the favourite boats on the Torture Test because of its all-round centre-console fishability and nimble handling.

“It’s an awesome little set-on console that’s great to work out of,” said Murphy, adding that it’s a “fuss free” rig. Compared to some of the other rigs on the Torture Test it also turned out to be relatively cheap to run, thanks in no small part to its 115hp Yamaha four-stroke outboard.

FISHING PACKAGE

The more gear got crammed into the Haines Hunter Prowler, the better it seemed to perform. It just loved a bit of weight to get those reverse giants working. That efficient Yamaha 115 just seemed to push it along effortlessly and for a centre-console it had a surprising volume of storage.

Jack Murphy had the final word: “The fuel efficiency’s great, the riding comfort’s great and the power is sensational.”