Full review of the Swellpro Fisherman Max Fishing Drone

The much anticipated Swellpro Fisherman Max Heavy Lift Fishing Drone is finally in New Zealand, and here at Drone Fishing NZ we have been able to get our hands on this very sought after model to test for ourselves.

Below is a breakdown on some of the important new features of the new Fisherman Max and why we think the Fisherman Max is a real step up from any fishing drones currently on the market.

The Fisherman Max provides a number of exciting new features and developments in the fishing drone industry with a number of new innovations for for swellpro like NO Calibrations. The Max is also the a Large Fishing Drone but has folding arms (which means compactness for when transporting in a case). It has a large 3.5KG payload lifting capacity, Smart Phone & APP connectivity (if you want to use features like AUTO Fish which is becoming popular these days). The phone simply connects to the Remote Controller at the bottom, using the included mount (but you don’t need to use the phone if you don’t want to).

Fisherman Max is a Heavy Lift Drone

With the capability to lift 3.5Kg or more – this beast really has the capacity to lift some decent baits, and weights if required. Even if you aren’t intended to lift that much, it’s also good to have that additional redundancy so it’s means you will never be overworking the motors or stressing the drone. This additional power also helps when weather conditions on the beach get difficult. Here is a video of the Fisherman Max being tested out with 2.4kg of payload weight

No Calibrations Needed

No Pre-flight Calibrations needed with the Fisherman Max in itself is a huge deal, so no more getting dizzy from “doing the drone dance” – you just setup your drone and get fishing! So this is going to save the fisherman lots of time on the beach. Apparently the Fisherman Max drone has a “Geomagnetic Database” built in, so it uses that to automatically calibrate to the earth’s magnetic field in your particular area.

The Manufacturer tells us that the Fisherman Max will deliver 6 bait drops of a heavy 2kg 400 meters offshore on one battery, which is pretty good.

Better GPS Tracking capability

Other impressive features include the ability to track upto 30 Satellites at any one time, and this makes for much better drone flight accuracy and GPS Positioning and also provides better ability to pinpoint it’s own position much more precisely, this is particularly important when in Autopilot mode.

All-in-one Remote Control with Large Colour LCD Screen

We are also really happy to see that with the Fisherman Max, Swellpro has gone back to the “All-in-one” remote control which includes a large colour LCD Screen that was very popular on the older Splashdrone 3+. This is a great idea – as it does away with the need for you to use your own smart phone to see the video feed from the drone (so you don’t need to worry about the phone running out of battery, or you mate calling up to see how the fishing is going RIGHT in the middle of a flight),
The Large Brilliant Colour LCD Screen displays both the drones LIVE video from it’s camera plus all other important drone information including Battery Level, Number of GPS Satellites, Drone distance away – and everything is all very visible and easy to see at a glance, which is also a great safety feature.

Another awesome new feature we have found also, is that the Remote Control now has voice audio prompts (meaning that it now talks to you). This is great because if you happen to miss an important alert on the screen (like low battery), or you hit auto return home, or if you have mistakenly switched out of GPS Mode, the Fisherman Max will now also talk to you and alter you as to what is going on, so this represents a really good new safety advancement.

High Resolution 4K Camera with Gimbal Control

The first Fisherman Max model coming out is called the “Advanced model” which has the same 4K Single Axis Camera that we have seen before on the Splashdrone 4.
The Camera allows you to control the tilt angle of the drone from the remote control, so you can either tilt the camera ahead so it sees out in front of the drone, OR tilt it downwards so you can then easily see where you are dropping your baits or get a clearer picture of the bottom terrain, including reefs, channels, the back of the surf break – all easily identifiable while in the air.

The Fisherman Max is also is equiped with 4K high definition camera which even allows you to record your fishing trip on Micro SD Card for viewing later. There is no other Fishing Drone Brand on the market that has the quality of cameras, or the camera range that Swellpro has on offer.

Water Resistant hull design with attachable floats for water landing

Unlike the Splashdrone 4 and the FD1 Fisherman drone models which have air pockets inside the drone which enable it to float, this time Swellpro have elected to go down a different route and not provide buoyancy within the drone because they have worked out that most fisherman normally don’t actually want to land their drone in the water. If they did make the Fisherman Max floatable (as standard) this would only increase its bulkiness of the drone and also mean that it wouldn’t be foldable, so we think this was a really smart design choice on their part. For those that really DO want to land the drone in the water, Swellpro provides (as an additional accessory) four floats – one for each arm. Once attached, these add buoyancy to each arm and because the Fisherman Max itself is water resistant, this means the drone will float stably in calm water (see the image below).
A highly regarded YouTuber Dustin Dunhill has recently posted a series of video reviews of the Fisherman Max and during one video he tested out the level of water resistance, in which it performed very well – check his video out HERE.

The Fisherman Max has Solid feel and build quality

Probably one of the most impressive features of this drone when you see it in person, is that it feels really solid and well made in your hands. It is obviously slightly heavier than other drones but this is to be expected with its heavy lift capability. We were particularly liked the carbon fibre arms of the Fisherman Max – they really feel strong and well made. The arms obviously are designed to take a fair amount of load given the motors sit on the end of each arm, so it is reassuring to see they have used an incredibly strong (yet lightweight) material for these arms – this was smart move by Swellpro.

Great Portability thanks to the Foldable Arm Design

You can also see from the image below how well the Fisherman Max folds down into its case. Swellpro have really put some work into making sure the Drone is really compact for easy transportation.

The Fisherman Max gives a lot of confidence when flying it

One of the things we liked straight away when we recently were given a test flight by the local New Zealand agent for Swellpro was how stable and easy to fly the drone was right out of the box. It gave us a lot of confidence right away. The other thing we liked was the folding arms – this really allows the drone to fold down into a compact size, and into a case that really isn’t very large. This makes it moving around a lot easier!

To celebrate the release here at Drone Fishing NZ, as a special bundle offer we have put together a very special deal for our subscribers and current customers.

We have come up with a bundle package which includes an additional Drone Battery (worth $499) and also full set (2 pairs) of propellers. For a limited time buying this bundle will save you $200 off the normal price (was $6199, now $5999)

If you are keen to learn more about the Swellpro Fisherman Max, you can now buy from us BY CLICKING HERE