Mako 9700 Bluewater Fly Reel

The Mako 9700 Bluewater Fly Reel is the largest reel Mako builds and the only one in the range sized for fish that can empty a reel before the boat is turned around. Mako rates it for 12 weight lines and up and quotes 410 yards and more of 100 pound braid behind a WF12, which puts it squarely on billfish, tuna, giant trevally and the largest tarpon. At 5.5 inches across and 16.75 ounces it is deliberately oversized, and that is the point: an offshore reel is bought for drag heat capacity, backing volume and sealing against sustained immersion, not for saved ounces. Everything Mako is known for is here at its largest scale, a fully sealed carbon fiber drag, a calibrated one-turn-stop knob, a taper lock quick-change spool and a three ball bearing spindle assembly, machined to aerospace tolerances and hand calibrated before it ships. This is the reel for the trip you have been saving for, where the fish of the week eats once and everything after that is equipment.

Design

Ported Frame at 5.5 Inches - The 9700 runs a 5.5 inch frame, a full inch larger than the 9550 and half an inch larger than the 9600, and the frame is ported throughout to keep a solid machined reel of that diameter from getting heavier still. At 16.75 ounces it is the heaviest reel Mako makes. That mass is not an oversight. A 12 to 14 weight rod needs weight behind the grip to balance, and a heavy reel sits steadier in a rod holder and in a fighting position than a light one. The porting also lets a spool of soaked backing dry between sessions rather than sitting against solid metal for a week of a trip.

Large Calibrated One-Turn-Stop Knob - The full drag range lives inside a single rotation of an oversized indexed knob with a true one-turn stop, so you can move from free spool to full setting in one motion without counting turns. On a bluewater reel that is a working control rather than a set-and-forget one. You back pressure off when a fish jumps or greyhounds toward the boat and you add it back at the end of a long fight, sometimes repeatedly, and a knob that takes three rotations to cover its range makes that guesswork. The knob is calibrated at the factory, so the index marks correspond to repeatable pressure instead of being decorative.

Taper Lock Quick-Change Spool - Spools change on a taper lock system rather than a threaded cap, and the spool rides on a three ball bearing spindle assembly. Both choices are about longevity in salt and about what happens on a rolling deck: there are no small threaded parts to drop overboard during a spool swap, and the taper lock does not develop play between spool and frame after seasons of heavy drag the way a worn thread will.

Finish

Type III and Enhanced Type II Anodizing - Mako specifies Type III hard anodizing on its black reels, which drives a near ceramic hardness into the surface of the aluminum rather than laying a coating on top of it, and Enhanced Type II anodizing for its color finishes. That distinction is worth knowing on a reel in this class, because an offshore reel spends days at a time in a rod holder taking spray and green water and gets handled with wet, sandy hands the whole trip. We stock the 9700 in three finishes: Matte Black, Matte Platinum on Black and Matte Turquoise on Black. All three are matte rather than gloss, and the Matte Black is the one carrying the Type III specification.

Materials

Fully Machined Aluminum - Frame and spool are machined aluminum, produced to what Mako describes as the highest machining standards and level of polish, then hand assembled and individually calibrated before the reel leaves the shop. Machining rather than casting is what makes the rest of the reel possible at this size, since a sealed drag only stays sealed if housing and lip seals meet within a narrow band, and a 5.5 inch quick-change spool only stays free of play if spool and spindle are cut to match. Mako does not publish an aluminum alloy, so we do not quote one.

Drag

Type - A fully sealed multidisc full-contact carbon fiber drag using Mako's button technology, which is aimed at start-up friction. The spool begins turning the instant a fish pulls rather than jolting against a stack that has set while the reel sat, and on a bluewater take that first instant is where hooks pull and class tippet parts. What separates this reel from the smaller Makos is not peak pressure so much as how long it can hold a setting. An inshore fish gives you a hundred yard run; a tuna or a sailfish gives you three hundred yards without stopping, and every foot of it converts drag pressure into heat in the stack. A larger frame means larger diameter discs, which means more surface area and more thermal mass to absorb that heat, so the pressure you dialed at the strike is the pressure still working at the end of the run. Mako does not publish a maximum drag figure for the 9700; Trident measured 15 to 17 pounds on the smaller 9550.

Materials - Carbon fiber discs run inside a housing sealed by o-rings and proprietary carbon impregnated Teflon lip seals. Sealing is the entire argument for a reel in this category. Offshore the reel does not merely get splashed, it gets submerged: a wave over the bow, a rod stowed in a wet locker, a reel rinsed in a bucket at the end of the day. Because salt and grit never reach the stack, the pressure you calibrated in year one behaves the same in year ten without the reel being opened. Carbon fiber is the correct disc material at this size precisely because of the heat argument above, since it stays consistent as it warms where cork and many synthetic stacks lose grip or grab.

Arbor Size

Large Arbor - The 9700 is a large arbor reel, and at 5.5 inches it recovers more line per turn than anything else Mako builds, which matters when a billfish turns and runs at the boat and the only way to stay tight is to wind. Mako rates it for 375 meters and up, or 410 yards and up, of 100 pound braid alongside a WF12 line, and recommends 60 to 100 pound GSP braid. Read the range table carefully and the 9700's real advantage becomes clear: the 9600 already holds 330 to 440 yards, but of 60 to 80 pound braid, while the 9700 holds 410 and up of 100 pound. The gain is capacity in heavy backing, not simply more yardage. That matters because thin backing beds down into itself under a sustained high-drag run and can jam a spool solid, and because heavy GSP gives you something you can actually hold when clearing a wrap boatside. For reference, the 9500 takes 230 to 300 yards of 50 pound braid with a WF7 and the 9550 takes 300 to 355 yards of 50 to 60 pound braid with a WF9.

Warranty

Mako Lifetime Warranty - As of August 2026, Mako warrants its reels to be free of manufacturing defects and covers repair or replacement of manufacturer defects for the lifetime of the original owner. The warranty does not cover direct, indirect, consequential, incidental or any other damage resulting from use of the reel, and any modification that alters the reel's calibrated settings can void coverage, so drag work goes back to Mako rather than to an outside bench. Register the reel with Mako after purchase and route service requests to them directly.

More Info

• Best for: Bluewater and offshore fly fishing, billfish, tuna, giant trevally and the largest tarpon
• Line Weight: 12 wt and up
• Frame Diameter: 5.5 inches, the largest in the Mako range
• Weight: 16.75 oz
• Arbor Size: Large
• Backing Capacity: 410 yards and up of 100 lb braid with a WF12 line
• Recommended Backing: 60 to 100 lb GSP braid
• Drag: Fully sealed multidisc full-contact carbon fiber with button technology, calibrated one-turn-stop knob. Mako publishes no maximum drag figure for this size
• Spool: Taper lock quick-change on a three ball bearing spindle assembly
• Finish: Type III hard anodizing in Matte Black, Enhanced Type II in Matte Platinum on Black and Matte Turquoise on Black
• Retrieve: Left or right hand, specified at purchase. Mako offers a paid factory retrieve swap rather than a user conversion
• Sizes in the range: 9500 (7-9 wt), 9550 (9-11 wt), 9600 (10-12 wt), 9700 (12 wt and up)
• Included: Backing installed free by Trident
• Built: Hand assembled and individually calibrated