Deep Sea Electronic Fishing Reel Left or Right Hand

Know exactly how deep your bait is.

The sounder marks a school holding at 32 metres. You drop a bait, count the seconds in your head, and you are either sitting 10 metres over the top of them or dragging through the mud. Do that for an hour and you write the mark off, move, and never come back to a spot that was full of fish the whole time.

The other version of the same problem is the bust-off. Something big takes a run, you get cut off in the reef, and you have no idea how much line just went with it — so you do not know what is left on the spool or how deep you can safely drop next.

The SAMOLLA TX1000 is an ordinary low-profile baitcaster with an LCD line counter sitting on top of it. It reads out in metres to one decimal place as line pays off the spool, so once you find the layer you can put a bait back in it on the next drop, and the one after that. It beeps when a fish drags line off, beeps again when the bait is 5 metres and then 3 metres off the rod tip, and re-zeros itself after a break-off once you wind the remaining line back on.

You still wind it in by hand. Nothing on this reel is powered except the screen and the buzzer — the electronics count line and sound alarms, they do not turn the spool. If the battery goes flat halfway through a session the reel keeps fishing exactly like any other baitcaster; you just lose the numbers.

What It Does

• Counts the line out: the LCD reads metres to one decimal place as the spool turns, so the depth that worked is a number you can repeat instead of a guess.
• Marks a depth: lock in the layer you found and the reel beeps every time the bait reaches it again.
• Calls the bite: switch the alarm on and the screen flashes and beeps when something pulls line, which matters when you are rigging a second rod.
• Warns you the bait is close: a beep at 5 metres and again at 3 metres on the wind-in, so a set of trebles does not arrive at head height unannounced.
• Reads in the dark: backlight on demand, and it drops out again after 20 seconds untouched to save the battery.
• Recovers from a break-off: wind what is left back on, hold both buttons, and the counter resets to the line still on the spool.

Key Features

• 6.4:1 gear ratio: brass drive gear, quick enough to pick the slack up off a deep drop without cranking all day.
• 16 kg maximum drag: star drag running carbon fibre washers. That is the supplier's stated figure, not a tested one.
• 7 + 1 bearings: counted off the supplier's own parameter panel and the marking on the side plate, and the two agree.
• 24-step magnetic brake: 10 magnets on an external dial — low settings for heavy baits and distance, high settings for light baits and learning the reel.
• Machined aluminium spool: 37 mm diameter, 38 mm wide, holding 390 m of 0.23 mm line.
• Stainless steel base plate: a reinforcing plate bolted under the frame, right where the reel seat clamps it to the rod.
• Funnel-shaped line guide: a wide tapered exit at the front to cut friction as line leaves the spool.
• USB charging: lead supplied. Charges off a power bank, a laptop or the USB socket in the ute on the way to the ramp.
• Left or right hand: pick your side at checkout. They are separate builds — TX1000L and TX1000R — not a reel you convert.
• Auto power off: the display shuts itself down after 30 minutes with nothing touched.

Limits

What this reel will not do, stated plainly.

• It is not an electric reel: there is no motor and no powered retrieve. "Electronic" here means a battery-powered line counter, display and buzzer bolted to a hand-wound baitcaster. If you want a reel that hauls the line in for you, this is not it.
• No water rating of any kind: the supplier's artwork says "seawater proof" and calls the charge port a "waterproof plug", but no IP rating and no depth or immersion figure is published anywhere. We are not calling it waterproof. Treat it as spray and splash only, keep it out of the bilge water, and rinse it in fresh water after every salt session.
• The counter is only as good as the setup: you tell it which PE line size you are running and wind the line on in the reel's winding mode. Spool it up any other way, or change to a different line diameter, and the metre reading will be out.
• Battery details are unpublished: the supplier states no battery type, no capacity, no charge time and no run time. It shows a low-battery symbol and the instructions refer to charging or replacing the cell, but nothing tells you which cell it takes.
• The charge port is unconfirmed: one supplier panel labels it USB Type-C, while the lead pictured with both the left and right hand models is a micro-USB. We have not had one in front of us to settle it, so check the port before you buy a spare lead.
• No certification was sighted: no standard, test report or certificate of any kind is published for this reel, and none is printed on it.
• It is a small reel: 270 g and a 37 mm spool. It holds a genuinely useful amount of line for the size, but it is a bream-to-snapper class baitcaster, not a game reel for chasing marlin.

Q & A

Does it wind the line in by itself?

No. It is a hand-wound baitcasting reel. The battery runs the screen, the line counter and the alarms — nothing else. There is no motor in it.

What happens when the battery goes flat?

You keep fishing. The reel winds, casts and drags exactly the same; you just lose the depth readout and the alarms until you charge it. The display shows an empty battery symbol before it gets there.

Can I convert a right-hand reel to left-hand?

No. The TX1000L and TX1000R are built the opposite way around, handle, gearing and all. Choose the side you wind with using the Hand option on this page.

Will it handle saltwater?

The base plate is stainless and the supplier calls the reel corrosion resistant, but there is no rating behind that and there is a battery and a circuit board inside it. Plenty of people fish these from a tinny and a boat rock hopper will be fine, but it wants a fresh water rinse and a dry-off at the end of the day like any reel with electronics in it. Do not submerge it.

How accurate is the depth reading?

It counts spool revolutions and works the length out from the line size you selected, so accuracy comes down to setting the right PE number and winding the line on through the reel's winding mode. Done properly it is repeatable, which is the part that catches fish — getting back to the same layer. It is not a depth sounder and it does not know what the water under the boat is doing.

Does it come with line?

No. You get the reel and a USB charging lead. No line, no rod, and the lead has a standard USB plug on the end, so you supply the charger or the power bank.

Specs