![]() If you read their advertisements, or even rod reviews, (where most often the reviewer gets to keep the rod they are writing about), there’s such a ton of lingo and praise that is hard to ascertain which is truth or which is marketing hype. Orvis and Sage are notorious for their advertising hype when it comes to marketing their latest and greatest rod models. Both the Meridian and Exocett were giving me tighter loops and better accuracy. Performance at 100 feet: 18.7 points out of 20 Surprisingly the 3F still did very well out long, matching the Meridian and Exocett! But the Asquith and NRX were definitely much better. Performance at 80 feet: 19.5 points out of 20 I loved the light swing weight and the beautifully controlled tight loops I was getting that produced superb accuracy. Performance at 60 feet: 20 points out of 20 I felt the equally perfect Meridian had a tiny edge here. With such great feel and accuracy it was hard to deny the 3F a prefect score. Performance at 35 feet: 20 points out of 20 This rod is built here in the USA at the Orvis plant in Manchester, VT. The guides are excellent and similar to what Scott uses with two big titanium SiC strippers followed up with the excellent, flexible, nickel titanium snake guides. The extension butt is nice looking, with a contrasting darker composite cork on the bottom end. You can really get a good grip on this wide ring. I especially like the double wide first locking ring. The double ring, uplocking aluminum seat uses a flat gray graphite insert. The cork handle is a full wells, with the same kind of stack of thin, high quality cork found on the Loomis and Scott rods. I do like the non-glare finish, similar to the NRX. The blank color on the 3F is a flat gray with slightly darker gray wraps, which was all pretty bland to me, and certainly not nearly as attractive as blue Helios 2 rods. I guess the thinking at Orvis is that this would help the rod jump off the rack when people walked into a fly shop, but I think all this white is a mistake, especially for a company that has given us such great looking rods in the past. Nearly every person that has seen this rod has made the same comment. The six inches of white on the butt, above the cork grip is just plain UGLY. ![]() The only gripe I have is about the cosmetics. We’ve always been impressed with the Orvis craftsmanship and this rod is no exception. In our performance scores, you’ll see that the 3F came in a close third, just behind the Meridian. This is a fast action rod but with a very flexible tip that gives it such great feel and accuracy in close. I thought that the Meridian and the Exocett were also better at 100 feet. At long range the 3F still gets it done, but not with the authority of the Loomis Asquith or NRX. We tried the Helios 3D but decided that the 3F was the better rod based on how much better it was at short and mid-range distances. ![]() A lot of credit for this goes to the softer tip Orvis uses on this model. I loved the feel it gave me, combined with terrific accuracy. There is no question that this is a marvelous rod at short to medium distances where it took perfect scores. Once again a Helios was the lightest rod in swing weight, but now there are three other rods that match it – the Asquith, Meridian, and Exocett. We were all impressed with how Orvis has improved the way this rod performs compared to the Helios 2. ![]()
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