Review of Orvis Helios 3 Fly rod “It’s Worthy”

Review of Orvis Helios 3 Fly rod “It’s Worthy”

Since October we have had our hands on the new Orvis Helios 3D 9ft 5wt rod. Several of the staff had the opportunity to fish with it from the boat and wading. Fishing everything from smaller Blue Winged olives to throwing double/triple down nymph rigs. We put this rod in the hands of two of our most critical guides. Guide A (protecting identities for my safety) a former Sage this Sage that type of guy had this to say, “IT’S WORTHY!!”.  Guide B another old school guide with 20 plus years under his belt was equally as impressed, especially for it’s “AMAZING ACCURACY”.  Neither of these guys gave the thumbs up to many Orvis rods until the Helios 2 came along.  The rest of the gang are also as impressed with the Helios 3 series.

Not needing to get into the deep state technology behind the H3. I did spend a day in October with the man who designed the rod and half of what he said was way above my pay grade, but it made for a hell of a story. The short and the sweet of this rod is the incredible accuracy of the rod comes from one major character, Hoop Strength. By the hoop of the rod not compressing when loading and un-loading there is much less side to side tracking thus a straighter more accurate presentation. Another benefit is the added strength of the rod due to this new technology.

But as with any amount of technology, that it’s only as good as the operator. That may be true with the Helios 3 in that it’s designed for the person how has fished with enough rods to really appreciate it’s properties. A good cast helps as well as a proper line. Unlike many rods in this category this rod doesn’t need to be over lined to cast well.

3F is accuracy with finesse, a dry fly angler’s dream. 3D is accuracy with power at distance for pinpoint delivery of larger flies. The difference is taper and stiffness, but the design foundation of accuracy remains constant. I was able to cast every one of the new Helios 3’s in October, granted on a nice lawn with very little in the way of variables. There was a different feel to the new rods that took me a minute to get in touch with, like swinging a new golf club. Once I dialed myself in the results were pretty “freaking cool”.  What Guide B said to me was that especially fishing from the moving drift boat the new rod was so much more accurate that he literally had to make less casts throughout the day. Also he was dropping line on the water less, and then picking back up and recasting to the same spot.  That’s the feeling that most of us are getting the more we fish with the H3.  As a die-hard lover of my Helios 2’s, I was skeptical that the new rod would actually be that much of an improvement over what many of us thought was a terrific rod to begin with.  Orvis showed me the light!  Yeah “IT’S WORTHY!!”