In South America the Piranha is the meanest sucker in the water. In Australia the Ally Craft Piranha may gain the title as the meanest sucker on the water.

I have been driving my little four meter Ally Craft 'Scuppers' for eleven years and been well satisfied with its performance. I would hate to know just how many hours I have spent on the water in this little bit of Yamaha-powered tin.

The little boat caught one hell of a lot of fish and brought me back home safely every single time. The little Ally Craft had done me proud but I wondered about an upgrade. For a few years I looked at other peoples boats and had rides in plenty of contenders, but I just couldn't find a boat that could satisfy my needs for a super boat. Until now.

The aim of the Piranha project was to put together a boat, motor and trailer package that would give the absolute best performance as a river-impoundment and bay lure-fishing outfit. Boating can be a joy or it can be a hassle - I wanted an outfit that was low maintenance and trouble free so I could concentrate on fishing.

This package was to target the major lure and fly fishing species in Australia. Bass, barramundi, trout, bream, jacks, murray cod and estuary perch. I also wanted to be able to sneak out in good weather to target inshore ocean species such as snapper, mackerel, Australian salmon and bonito.

To this end I needed a boat with a bit of size and grunt to allow a bit of a safety margin for getting caught in bad weather. I wanted a boat that was fast, tough and economical to run but I also needed it to be able to operate in very shallow water and to be super maneuverable when actually fishing under electric power. If you think finding all this in the one boat is a very tall order, you would be right!

I looked for a long time before I saw the right hull lying on the floor at the Sydney boat show a year ago. This thing was short, fat, wide, and heavy -and I fell in love with it straight away.

I loved its bottom for a start! Uncomplicated, and I could see that it would draw very little water at rest or under electric power.

The hull was also wide enough to offer fantastic stability while lure-casting or fly fishing and most importantly it would hold up the weight needed to support a dirty big four stroke Yamaha for some quiet speed and economical reliability.

My first impressions of weight and toughness were confirmed when I talked to Chris the guy who built the beast.

The thing has a three mm hull and three mm sides and it has enough alloy in it to build about three normal boats! I gave Chris my best 'buffalo-withering' stare and asked if he thought I would be able to break it. Chris gave me an even meaner stare back and said "even you won't break one of these Bushy." I believed him.

After driving the finished product for a month or so I can now report that the hull matches brilliantly with an 80 HP Yamaha four stroke. Top speed is 40 MPH and the boat will lope along at 35 all day without raising a sweat. The torque and power of this motor jumps the boat onto the plane and has the grunt to effortlessly push it along in nasty chop.

The ride of this hull in anything but the worst conditions is very, very good. The motor just refuses to use fuel and I can't believe how economical it is. This is very good news for me as I intend to spend a lot of time on the water in this outfit.

The folks at Ally Craft were keen to be involved and they did a brilliant job of fitting out the boat as a dedicated sportsfisher. The fit-out is not rocket science - it's actually a bit more complicated than packing a tube with explosive ingredients and lighting the wick. The layout in a lure and fly boat has to be good or you just don't have the fun you should or catch the fish you would like.

We will start at the bow or as it should be called the 'office' because it's where all the work gets done, and you spend a lot of time up there. The floor on the fore-deck of a lure and fly boat needs to be flat. No ifs and buts - flat! You need a lip to stop things falling over the side but after that the deck should be absolutely as high as you can make it.

It needs to be high to increase under-deck storage (in most boats there just isn't enough, but the Piranha has heaps) and to allow the angler to see fish in the water. If the boat is stable being high isn't a problem.

A good boat will have a flush mount on the fore-deck to accommodate a leaning post or a chair. Even young people like to lean on something during ten or twelve hours on the water and old blokes love to sit and cast in comfort. Most boats have the leaning post way to close to the bow leaving little space for the electric control peddle or coils of fly line.

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The Piranha has a massive amount of space and everything is in the right place. There is a live-well under the deck and it has a seal to stop water splashing about. The other hatches are all well built and easy to access. The ply is heavy duty and the carpet work excellent.

Because the fore-deck is high there is a step to help you get up there. The step also acts as more storage which I use for lifejackets mooring ropes and flares.

The piranha has a side console which actually gives the driver some protection from the weather. The seats are comfy and low and the screen on the console does a great job of breaking the wind. There is bugger-all protection for the passenger when the boat is blasting along full-bore but if the passenger is worried about that I reckon they should go and buy a boat so they can be the driver!

Rod storage is a problem on many boats because we all like to take a million rods and they have to be stowed carefully to keep them handy but unbroken. I hate full-length rod lockers because they eat up so much cockpit space and they rarely seem to be used on an actual fishing trip.

The Piranha has three rod holders under the port gunwhale for rigged rods and a vertical rod holder to take four rigged rods on the side of the console. I normally don't like vertical holders but because the fore-deck is so high I haven't managed to hit any of the stored rods while casting.

This rod storage system is a compromise but I haven't ever seen one that is perfect and this one leaves the cockpit area much larger than it would be with full rod lockers. I am happy with the system so far.

The rear set up of the cockpit is great. There is a casting platform at the same height as the fore-deck so the passenger has plenty of height and room to fish (see, I really do care). In the center of the rear deck there is a huge ice box which could also be plumbed and used as an extra live-well if you want. There is more storage either side of the ice-box and hatches to access it.

Practically speaking the layout is even better than I had hoped and I wouldn't change a thing. It is just a pleasure to fish in this boat.

The really scary thing about the Piranha is its ability to fish shallow water and tight narrow creeks. I will admit to having my doubts as I looked at the beast on the trailer for the first time. "Bloody hell" I thought, "this thing is as big as the Queen Mary." I thought I might have overdone it, but I have since squeezed the beast into a lot of tight corners and been amazed at how well it fishes the tight stuff. I guess it is really just a matter of mathematics - my old boat was 4.1M long and the new one is 4.65. A bit over 50Cm is not really much extra length to fit into a creek.

Sure the boat is a lot wider and heavier but that doesn't seem to make much difference in maneuvering. The key is having a fairly wide bottom without much vee. The payoff though is that now I can fish as long as I want to without having to worry about a rough ride home. Ripper!

Because the modern fly and lure angler spends more time on the electric than on the main power plant you need the hull to work well under electric power. This hull works beautifully with my MinnKota 74 pound thrust lecky. When you buy a Piranha it comes straight from the factory with a plate on the front to mount your electric motor. No hassle - and that is the way it should be.

My electronics are Furuno and I have a FCV600L colour sounder up the front with the transducer mounted under the electric motor and another FCV600L mounted in the console with the transducer mounted normally on the transom for finding fish while travelling on the main power plant.

We also have another cunning device that comes with the boat. I am always amazed that most boats leave the yard with a strap over them to lash them to the trailer. The strap come complete with little bits of carpet so the strap doesn't cut on the hull of the boat. This is a load of crap.

The strap wears the paint off your new boat in a couple of weeks, you lose the carpet and the boat cuts the strap. Not with the Piranha - it comes with special lugs so you can ratchet strap it direct to your trailer.

Now I guess it is one thing to have a good hull, a good motor and a good trailer but you need someone good to put it all together. In my case Blakes Marine did a fantastic job of putting the whole project together, Blakey has spent his life on the water and knows boating all the way from Sydney harbour ferries to racing power boats and he set my Piranha up to perform brilliantly.

All the small things are perfect - the steering - guages - controls have all been spot on. All I have had to worry about is turning on the key when I want to blast off and turning it off when I want to stop. Blakey has been fantastic and If you decide to get into something that goes like hell, is economical and smooth and is going to give you years of happy fishing - you just couldn't go past a deal from Blakes.

Well, there you go - I admit to being in love with my new boat but what can you say - it does every single thing I want and I have the feeling it will catch me one hell of a lot of fish and bring me back alive. See you on the water - Bushy .

A full price list and accessories of the Bushy Special can be found here: The Bushy Special