makaira 16 opinions

[Normslanding]

The 16 is a great 80/100# reel, when big capacity is not a issue.
The 15 is a wide 10, to wide for my liking. I have owned and sold more than 10 of them. Width makes me frustrated and I sell it, then I wish I had one again. The bottom line is it fills a spot, so I will hang on to the one I have. It will fish 100# with limited capacity. It is a great 60# reel holding about 600M. Charter friends of mine in Mexico have had Makairas (including a 15) on there boat for 7 years fishing almost every day. The reels are brutalized, rinsed some times, oiled occasionally and keep working. Personally it is just about all I own. So 60 on the 15 and 80/100 on the 16, I hope this helps.

[tacklerat]

Sounds good Normslanding, wouldn't mind checking the 10 and 8 size for a look too. Cheers

[Normslanding]

About the 8, many on this site pushed for a 8 to be built. Due to capacity the 8 (IMO) falls short, what you give up is versatility. I own 3 10's.

[tacklerat]

Sounds like the 10 size are the go. Thanks for the heads up on that. Cheers

[tacklerat]

My mk 15 turned up a few days ago. Unfortunately there was a bit of a grinding noisy feel to it in normal high speed. Low speed was fine. Had to send it back unfortunately. Not sure what I will end up doing now. Anyone else had this?

[shanara]

I have 7 Makaira's from 16 to 50's
And they are all noticeably rougher in hi speed as apposed to low, where they are very smooth indeed
The roughness is noticeable partly because the reels have silent anti reverse dogs unlike tiagras/lnternationals that have clicking dogs, but I actually think that my tiagra high gears are smoother if you discount the clicking dogs when turning the handles at home in a quiet room

The roughness/noise in high on the Makairas reduces considerably under load and is unoticeable when fighting a fish where they are the smoothest quietest reels I have ever used

[johndtuttle]

My mk 15 turned up a few days ago. Unfortunately there was a bit of a grinding noisy feel to it in normal high speed. Low speed was fine. Had to send it back unfortunately. Not sure what I will end up doing now. Anyone else had this?

There probably was nothing wrong with the reel. When you have a high speed reel moving such a large and heavy spool with SS gears a little bit of start up inertia/handle pressure and noise is to be expected.

These are not buttery foo-foo reels, but used for stump pulling .

[tacklerat]

Thanks guys. I do own several of the larger models and also a 20 which doesn't  have that grindy feel. Didn't want to take a chance on a new one just in case. Cheers