In September 2017, the Ovis Helios 3D was born. After a 7-year run with incredible feedback and plenty of fish brought to hand, fast forward to February 2024, and the Helios D is here. All I can say is, wow…

I don’t want to say it, but I’m going to. In the past 4 years, not a single rod has come out on the market that has made me go, “Wow, this is better than all of these top-tier rods,” until the launch of the new Helios. Every new model that comes out is marginally better in different aspects. Scott Sector, NRX+/NRX T2S, Salt R8 – out of all of these top-tier rods, the Helios immediately made me rethink my lineup of current rods, and that has never happened to me.

The way I’d describe the casting stroke of this rod is going to be different from what you have probably heard. The rod feels “dead” in the hand. Normally, I’d say this is a bad thing, and it’s not what we want out of a rod for a fun fishing experience; but this rod is anything but a bad fishing experience let me elaborate on this.

I mean dead in the most positive way. It feels as if the rod doesn’t have any recoil or “wobbly action”. The returning to center from a hard stop on the front or back casting stroke provides instant feedback to the caster. This rod feels very stiff at the base of the rod while loading the mid-ish section for the power and throwing ability. The rod allows you to feel the line throughout the whole range of your casting stroke. I believe that’s why this rod is so accurate. We haven’t spoken about the accuracy but it’s insane that every time you make a cast with this rod, somehow the fly just lands where you want it. The weird thing is, it doesn’t feel accurate when you’re actual casting. The rod has an insane amount of power and is fast. I’m curious to see how this rod handles the shorter quick shots.

There will be a full video posted shortly. We need to get more time with this rod in many more situations before we just throw out some half A** review. We want to give you the most accurate, performance-based and real information we can.

With all that being said. I’m extremely excited to fish this rod more and my initial thoughts are wow, A+ Orvis VERY well done.