Orvis Attempts to Top Its Most Beloved Fly Rod With New Helios 4
In the process, the outdoor sporting giant seeks to stoke the flagging interest of anglers who picked up the sport during the pandemic.
The author fly-fishing in Vermont.
Source: Courtesy Orvis Co.
Fly anglers like to test themselves by attempting to hook a glorious ocean fish, like a 100-pound tarpon. But if you want to put a rod to a real test, it’s best to try it in a situation that’s more fussy and technical: casting tiny, buggy flies at tiny, cagey brook trout. The surrounding branches and bushes leave little margin for error, as do the shoe-size pockets of water where you must land the fly. The trout themselves are easily spooked—they’re as skittish as mice, and usually not much larger.
That’s why I found myself along a trickle of a creek in Manchester, Vermont, with two of the high priests of fly-fishing: Shawn Combs and Tom Rosenbauer. Combs is head of fishing research and development at Orvis Co., which started making fly rods in 1856 and has since expanded into a retail giant selling outdoor apparel and ephemera such as dog beds and flasks. He’s been locked in his lab for almost seven years trying to come up with a rod to improve upon the Helios 3—regarded by many as the finest fly rod ever made.