I’ve fished both the F and the D in both the 5 and the 6 weights. I generally fish 5 weights and 6 weights, mainly 5 weights on the North Island of New Zealand, more 6 weights on the South Island of New Zealand with those bigger rivers, and with those rod sizes you really need a rod with the backbone to properly pray big fish and cast in those conditions. You really can just bend it out and really use the backbone of the rod to help control the fish.

When you’re fighting a fish, you really have that bottom half of the rod there to really just dig into, especially when you’re playing a big fish. It does everything you want it to do and it does it very well. Mending is very smooth and overall the rod is effective and effortless. It just makes roll casting an absolute dream. It just makes roll casting, water loading, and fishing heavy gear, heavy rigs, heavy nymphs, really, really easy. With the Helios 3D, you have so much power in that bottom half of the rod. You just line up the dots, away you go, and you know everything’s perfectly lined up.Īs you’d expect with a rod of this caliber, it’s all nicely finished and looks great. You don’t have to look down the rod and line up the guides just using your eyes. It makes putting your rod together super simple and thoughtless. Then you have the white dots, which line up when you’re putting your rod together, which is so simple but is just genius. Lastly you have the tip ring at the end which is nicely seated and it’s build well so it doesn’t look like it’ll be snapping off any time soon. Nicely finished, they look good and do the job. Then you have the snake guides running up the rest of the rod.

It’s a decent size, so it doesn’t restrict the casting at all, and on the 6 weight one, there are two stripping guides. It’s nice to have those options, and if you’re like me, I like a bit of color in my fishing gear, so I appreciate that Orvis gives us those to choose from.Īs far as the guides go, you have this nice big stripping guide on the 5 weight. You have the white, you have the blue, and you have the olive styles these days, which is handy for anglers who are picky about rod color or who want a selection while they’re on the water. There’s also an olive green one, which I don’t have, but I’ve seen them, and they look really sleek and kind of subtle. That blue really pops, especially on an overcast, dull day. There’s this really cool-looking blue one. If you like what you see in this Orvis Helios 3D fly rod review, you can order the rod on Orvis. Originally, the H3 was known for a white kind of look to it. It sits nicely in your hand, and it’s nicely molded, has a great shape that’s nice and smooth, it’s made with good quality cork, and overall it’s nice and ergonomic, and really easy and comfortable to fish with. I haven’t really fished many of them, but I much prefer this style. I know some of those rods these days have that kind of angular look to them. The cork handle is a nice smooth rounded style. There are no gaps, it lines up beautifully, it looks really, really nice. Once the reel’s sitting in there, it’s really snug.

I don’t think I’ve had that trouble once yet. It is nice and snug and once it’s done up, you don’t seem to have that trouble of it loosening off while you’re fishing.

The reel seat is just your plain black, run-of-the-mill reel seat. Below I’ll quickly break down the different components of the rod, keeping it pretty basic because the real techy stuff can be found on the Orvis listing for this rod.

Orvis helios 3d