As cruel as it sounds, just make her fish the overhead. It only takes using it to realise what a non-issue it is, just like riding a bike, or walking, once learnt they become second nature.

I don't much mind what brand LW you use, but I do expect it to blow up sambo jigging. Its very hard on a reel, and even harder on the levelwind. Worse, as they don't offer sycronised lw on that size, you know whats going to happen when the lw and the line are on opposite sides of the spool, and you have 26lb of drag running.

Maybe an overhead in a narrow configuration would be easier? Perhaps slightly under-filled so that if she doesn't lay the line perfect it still shouldn't be too much of an issue? Like till said it should become second nature after a few trips...

Yeah very true Till, guess il just have to be cruel to be kind. Let her use the overhead, any ideas on a nice compact light one for her? Im just a budget boy on the tld15 with a round power knob does the deal for me when bottom bouncing

Have a look at the Shimano Charter special, compact, level wind and lever drag.

you could try stayin in the shallow water!!!! or if your really nice buy her a blue heaven!! haha

haha Luke are you bagging me for not heading out to the Derwent with you in norwesterlies and 2m swell haha:p Blue heaven, i dont think all my gear is worth one of those!

I have a large Swedish Abu Ultramag somewhere.  The level wind was 2 piece and it would come apart when the fish too line, but clip together when you were winding.  Don't know how it would hold up to the likes of big Sambos, but it held up fine against large cobias and macks.  Only problem is that it is not available anymore, but maybe some one has a similar design out there.

Depending on line class you plan to run, the Abu Ambassaduer Alphamar 20 for a quality smaller reel and say the Daiwa Saltist Levelwind for heavier line class stuff. The range of Daiwa Saltist reels and the Alphamar are all sycronised levelwinds so all fine for heavy load work.

Bought one for the missus and its been great coupled to a 52 smith rod.

i have a shimano tekota 800 its a great levelwind reel i use it for shark fishing landbased

awesome, cheers all il start a search on all reels and sift through the ones i like :)

The fairly newish Daiwa Saltist Lever Drag, single speed, 20 size, might make an ok 30lb jigger, the larger 30 size is too wide for jigging and pretty clumsy.

I like my Shimano Talica TAC8 for PE4. Its not so squirrely that it can't handle bigger jigs or longer drops that used to make my avey sx squeal a little over.

There is JM, and its very nice looking gear but the pe4 reel I found way too slow. Everyone seems to thing the old ocea jigger 2000p was the ducks nuts and it and the talica both do about 95cm per handle turn, the JMPE4 only does 60cm, plus the handle is so long you can't spin it really fast.

Not sure how true this is, but I quote it from another forum;

Yes price XE this reel made by MAXEL Jigging Master assemble themselves and brand.
Same reel with  MAXEL brand will be will be around $450 Au as of August in Australia and include 5 year warranty.

The Author seems to think that maxel machine the JM reels, and they want a slice of that pie for themselves. Unsure of how try that is, Maxel are from Dong Guan in China and JM claim their reels are made in Taiwan IIRC.

with the new Saltist LD 30 which is a level wind overhead and I love it ...very light yet will handle big fish.  If you are doing any deep bottom bashing the 6:1 retrieval ratio makes it much easier when rebaiting.  The drag is easy to set and I used it for snapper/dhui and skippy.  Just a flick of the lever and the drag can be set for the size fish you are catching.  I've got a TLD 20 and 25 and Satilga but spend the small amount of extra $$ for LD30.  She'll love it!!! 

The LD30 is a lever drag overhead, not a level wind overhead although there is a Saltist 30 with levelwind, its a star drag.

Nothing really wrong with the Daiwa Saltist Lever Drag, its just too wide for serious jigging.

I think that Daiwa are releasing Saltiga Lever Drags later this month.

Agree with 1morecast, purchase a TLD15 and match it with a 2m rod and she wont look back