Tatula Custom power drag

To complete the pimping process of my Tatula to be used as a medium heavy tackle setup, I need to beef the drag up a wee bit to squeeze some extra stopping power. After a few custom sized drag tests and ponding sessions, I've finally narrowed it down to a size that gives me quite a bit of drag force increase as well smoothness in initial takes.

Already pimped up, soon to be beefed up for better drag force and smoothness.

Regular checks will reveal parts that needs some tending too. Some roughed up bearings will be common.

Stock drags are already strong but there's more to be squeezed out from this reel.

Having oversized drag discs may not give you maximum drag force but understanding how each drag system works and how much pressure can the system apply onto the drag discs would give you better results and achieving the drag force desired.

This requires some testing with various sizes of drag discs for outright drag force using a simple rig and also out on the field/pond pulling some fish to get that feel of drag takes. For me, this should be a MH to H setup as the reel is spooled with 40lbs line and I will prioritize drag force over smoothness of maybe 7:3.

Custom sized carbontex drags to achieve stronger drag force and maintaining some smoothness.

Drag discs in place, visual checks all round for other ares that needs attention.

Quick clean up and lubed to bring back smoothness and casting performance.

All ready for some MH or H action.

This reel's built strong and tough, designed as a daily beater. No doubt about it. The only thing with this reel is that it's a little bit on the heavier side but when paired with the right rod, it'll be nicely balanced out for sure.

Tatula to the chop shop!

Year end festivities usually means sales and stock clearance, a global phenomenon and especially ubiquitous in the online shopping world. What we have here is a hot new product and some hotter new pimp-up parts to go with it. This hotly anticipated Daiwa Tatula's a combination of everything that works from Daiwa's arsenal of tech innovation and most noticeably the refinement of its previously less than perfect t-wing into the latest TWS incarnation that 'seems' to work, conceptually. The Tatula needs no further introduction as it has been very much dissected and every bit explored by most authoritative anglers out there.

We're here to talk about this virgin bait caster heading straight to the chop-shop with a set of hot purple aluminium pimpin parts as well as a limited edition Studio Composite carbon swept handle + silver carbon fiber handles. Hotter still, they were all on some kind of offer.

Here's one for the 'fresh out of the box' look.

Juicy purple pimpin bits bulging with anticipation to get bolted on.

Upon removal of the entire gearbox side, out comes the main gear and drag stack. Again, a well known Daiwa trickery in designing a smooth drag system, a combination of just one carbon fiber drag washer (not shown) and a second 'red' coloured wet drag washer which looks suspiciously a lot like engine manifold gasket sheets.

Level wind pawl housing cap removed, purple pimpin cap in. Note the red drag washer above.

Mechanical brake cap in boring black, swapped out with purple bits. Remember to swap out the friction sheet.

There's something quite curious about the drag stack. Typically, a drag disc is just a thin sheet of metal about 1mm thick sandwiching washers in between. The first/only disc on the Tatula is over 3mm thick and rather heavy. I might be wrong but, the only explanation I can fathom out from this is that Daiwa uses existing parts from their large inventory bins and as a value reel, there isn't a need for multi-layered drag discs and washers like higher end models. Hence the one and only fat drag disc in place of possibly 2-3 discs thickness.

 

A quick peek into the gearbox and lather it with saltwater grease goodness for some protection and longevity. No surprises here with some plastic bits for free spool release and the TWS flipping trigger witchery.

Purple purple everywhere! When dealing with aluminium hex screws, best to use high quality drivers as the slightest slippage would damage the screws and you'll spend donkey years trying to remove it.

All pimped-up and hasn't even seen the light of day. Soon!

Then comes the delayed RPCustom hybrid ceramic bearings, arrived slightly later and yet in time for it to be loaded into the reel before the reel gets wet.

The swap was easy on the magforce side (right) but complicated on the gearbox side, the gearbox aluminum casing needs to be removed to access the spool bearing on the mechanical brake side. Unlike Shimano's convenient design where you can access the bearings by removing the mechanical brake knob and a retainer wire.

Overall, promising looking reel, time will tell if this would be the go to reel as a daily beater hauling up big fish after big fish.