Daiwa Technology Ultimate Tournament Drag (UTD)

ULTIMATE TOURNAMENT DRAG TEHECHNOLOGY BY DAIWA

Ultimate Tournament Drag (UTD)

The New Saltiga introduces revolutionary technology. To understand this leading technology Daiwa’s Development Engineers explain the secret to Daiwa’s latest drag technology – UTD or Ultimate Tournament Drag.

DAIWA ULTIMATE TOURNAMENT DRAG

UTD

Daiwa’s latest drag system, UTD or Ultimate Tournament Drag, is a super high density, woven carbon drag washer system that is impregnated with a specially designed oil/grease.

The new system has many benefits over the old design. Firstly it substantially increases the practical drag pressure. Secondly the inertia to get the drag working is dramatically decreased. Thirdly the drag is now incredibly smooth. And last but not least it has stabilized and balanced the drag system against spool rotation.

Furthermore the carbon drag washers are up to 30 times more durable compared to the previous drag washers.

Drag operation corrugated graph

The above graph is comparative data showing the difference between the new Saltiga drag system versus the old system. The drag setting is shown at 3kg being pulled at a speed of 10 km/h.

The old Saltiga drag is shown as light blue in the graph and when an angler strikes or lifts the rod the drag pressure increases (highlighted in pink). This sudden increase in drag pressure can cause line and rod breakage, but if the angler lowers the rod or decreases the drag pressure the drag will stabilize. But with the UTD system in the new Saltiga (shown as dark blue) there is no increase in drag pressure, minimal inertia to begin working and it maintains smooth drag efficiency throughout the operation.

Offshore saltwater fishing

With this system now standard, the new Saltiga allows for the angler to set the drag at a higher pressure than ever before without the fear of line breakage or pulling the hook from a fish’s jaws. As a result, with fast fish like tuna or hiramasa, which often strike hard, there is a decreased risk of losing the fish due to the increase in drag pressure during hook setting.

The UTD drag system is the first all inclusive drag that reduces the need for the angler to manually maintain the drag system during the fight and eliminates hooks pulling free on the strike or line breakage caused by the drag’s start up inertia.