Guest Post by David Burton
A Restless Winter
My last cast of the 2025 season resulted in the one of the most memorable fish of the year. As I’d walked the banks I’d spooked a few fish, but I spotted this beauty early, sat midstream. A beast for this tiny river. Second cast, and as my floating beetle drifted closer, the fish lifted upwards and sucked it down. The fight felt frantic. In shallow water, beside a tangle of exposed tree roots and fallen branches, I managed to keep the fish away from the woody snags and finally brought it over the net.
This was my first trip out with the Helios F 7’6 3wt. This last capture of 2025 was a perfect example of the accuracy, power and delight that this new rod could deliver. I had a restless winter ahead of the new season, until I could string it up again.
APRIL
April came around and at last the new fishing season was underway. The rivers were full, but water levels were not as high nor flows as fast as the previous couple of years. We had Grannom hatches from the off, and the initial cold and windy conditions soon gave way to warmer days, sunshine on the water, and pockets of eager rising fish.
The rivers I fish here in Dorset are not big, they’re small to tiny. They’re wild chalk streams that wind this way and that, through farm pastures, water meadows, and wooded copses. As spring turns to summer, they shrink from sight as the bankside vegetation shoots up, and ranunculus spirals out of control. It’s all ideal territory for a 7’6 3 weight set up, and I was delighted to be offered a Helios F to fish with and report back.
I like this rod for so many reasons. Visually I think it’s a great design. I’m a huge fan of the matt olive finish; it’s not going to flash and glare as I’m casting. I like the subtlety of the real seat colouring. The small dots that aid alignment are truly helpful. The white branded section on the butt, that many whinge about, is a nice modern touch.
This isn’t a rod designed by a marketing committee, to an age-old specification of shiny greens, gloss golds and sparkly reds. This is a modern classic, an up-to-date rod, designed to be as good a fishing tool as it can possibly be. It feels serious. This rod is at the expensive end of the scale, but to me it feels worth every penny. Especially when those pennies have been focused on meaningful refinements rather than cosmetic niceties.
There are no unnecessary gimmicks. There is no showing off. Very much like the matt paint, it feels like each design decision has been made to enhance the rod’s performance, and I love this. I don’t need end caps for each section, I don’t need branding inside the rod tube. I don’t need a hand sewn or embroidered rod bag. I don’t even need a hook keeper on a rod this size, as my leader is usually twice as long, so it makes more sense to hook the fly in a tip section ring, bring the leader round over the real seat (nicely curved on the Orvis Battenkill) and tighten, therefore avoiding the main line going into the tip ring.
MAY
Being chased by cows on my way to the stream on May 1st, was a sure sign that nature was gearing up. The landscape was bursting into life, the May blossom was as beautiful as ever, the first cuckoo calls were heard, and our mayflies started hatching.
Towards the end of the month, I reached the point in the season where my wading boots were no longer welcome in the house. Temperatures crept up, and the fish became more active late into the evenings. I enjoyed a few more social trips to the river, fishing with friends, rather than my usual solitude.
My last trip alone, brought the biggest fish of the season (so far) to the net. It was a fish I had seen on a couple of previous occasions. It lived in a deep pool beside an awkward ’s’ shaped run. It would come out on patrol, cruising around the pool, rising in a different spot each time. Casting was blocked from most angles by surrounding trees and low branches. I tried three different approaches, all ended badly.
Then on this day, I heard it first. Then spotted it, as it gulped down mayfly duns that drifted its way, whilst holding station in the undercut tree roots at the very downstream end of the pool. The only option I had was to cast directly downstream. So whilst crouching amongst the flag irises that’s what I did. I tied on my favourite mayfly imitation (Nigel Nunn’s UV May) and cast. I watched my imitation glide down the pool towards him. A perfect drift first time. Then like a scene from Jaws, and as if in slow motion, his open mouth appeared behind my fly, then finally closed around it as he sucked it in. Bang, fish on!
The Helios F 7’6 3wt rod, is a remarkable rod. It is as light as a feather, smooth and effortless to cast. Its accuracy is breathtaking. It makes me look (and feel) good well beyond my skill level as an angler. The marketing material boasts that the Helios F is the most accurate rod available, and 4x more accurate than the Helios 3. I believe it! It’s like having a shortcut straight from your brain to your fly. You think about where you want to cast and that’s where the fly lands. At times you forget there’s a rod involved, it becomes invisible. It’s a delight to use.
And yet alongside that precise and delicate casting, it has the core strength to hold a strong fish in a good flow. My initial surprise has now turned to confidence when I hook larger fish that needs holding back from snags or flows.
JUNE
In June I had a few sessions in the rain, which thinking back now is the last rain I remember. By all accounts, I missed the best mayfly day, choosing not to go out due to heavy showers, strong winds, and maybe an accidental hangover. Several friends told me later it was the best night of duffers for a long time.
I drove a little further afield and fished some tiny streams. If it wasn’t for the bankside vegetation you could jump across these streams quite easily. I’d always shied away from shorter rods for fear of not having enough reach over obstacles, or not being able to throw a good mend, and losing line control. But this 7’6 rod has been perfect to work my way up stream through overgrown banks and tight wooded sections.
In mid-June I met another fish that kept me going back, who kept me up at night, and who remains at large and un-netted to this day.
Encounter one - I saw his silhouette sitting on the riverbed, midstream, under a strong current. First cast, he rose to my mayfly with lightning speed, grabbed it, and was downstream in a blur. I held him in the flow for just second before my tippet broke.
Encounter two - Armed with stronger tippet. No sign of the fish initially but just a couple of casts brought him up again. The hook didn’t set as he took the fly.
Encounter three - I think he saw me. He came up, but something spooked him at the last minute.
Encounter four - Stronger tippet. Staying well back from the water. On my knees. One cast. Fish takes. Fish takes off downstream. Trying to hold him. Too late, he’s in the snags. He’s off. I’m stuck. Grrrrrr!!
I never ran into him again.
JULY
By July it’s hard to find the water. Partly because the undergrowth is so tall, I have to wade through it in good faith that I’m heading in the right direction. And partly because with this year’s hot weather and no rainfall, there was less water to find.
I didn’t get out nearly as much as I wanted to in July. It was too hot. It’s not fun for me and it’s not fun for the fish. Some of the rivers were closed because of the high temperatures. In the cooler days I stuck to the larger streams with better water levels and shadier sections.
AUGUST
Here we are, it’s August. More sunshine, more heat, and now officially a drought with hose pipe bans, and wildfires. Fishing seems trivial at times, but also the most important thing to do to stay sane.
It feels like I haven’t been out on the river for ages, yet looking back writing this, it’s not that long ago at all. I need to get back out in the water as soon as I possible.
Hurry up and cool down weather! Hurry up with some cloud and rain please! I want to get back out on the rivers. I’ve got more fishing to do this year. I don’t want the fishing season to end now …and I don’t want to give this rod back ever!
You can find David on Instagram @phishtitz.