I’m not sure if you heard, but there’s a new line of Orvis Helios rods for 2024…
Actually, who am I kidding, you’d have to be living under a rock if you aren’t aware that the latest Helios models were released earlier this week. Orvis has been flooding social media (and old school email inboxes) with promos featuring their rod design & development guru Shawn Combs touting the innovations, benefits, and general badassery of the 4th-generation Helios.
Evidently the new Helios are the most accurate rods they’ve ever produced. They claim to be 4x more accurate… and 25% stronger than the prior Helios 3. They’re so much better, they dropped the number surname this go-round. They’re just Helios now. Like Prince… or Beyoncé… or (your choice of) Sting.
Image courtesy WWE.com
They clearly got these rods out to their guides, retailers, and media well in advance too. Why they forgot about me in that latter group, I have no idea. But in the past two or three days it seems like 3rd party articles and videos have been covering them closer than I think I’ve ever seen before in a new rod launch. Examples here, here, here, & here.
Personally, I do like that they more or less kept the appearance. The very distinctive white banding down by the grip is easily identifiable and quite handsome in my humble opinion. Not that it matters what I think.
Now a rod adorned with all of this new tech clearly doesn’t come cheap, nor should it. I’m not sure if I could ever pay $1200 for a rod that wasn’t guaranteed to come complete with the magic of unicorn hair. That’s typically a deal breaker for me. To be fair, pricing is always relative, I guess compared to some handcrafted bamboo rods, these new Helios are a steal. Plus, they gotta pay for Tom Rosenbauer somehow.
As for the ugly reality and if I’m being honest, the small streams I fish don’t require pinpoint accuracy. I cast maybe 30 feet at most with most of those being roll casts. Would I benefit, sure. However, even if my inaccurate casting is made better by 4x, it’s still going to be 10x less accurate than that of a competent fly fisher.
But… if Orvis (or one of my friends with access to a sweet pro-deal) wants to change my mind with one of those new 3-weights, you know where to find me. Hint, hint...