I have a company which is suited towards the Outdoor Adventures, sporting clays, bird hunting and fly fishing.I spend 300 days outdoors,for the past 15years I get to try a lot of equipment.
I have a few other Orvis rods , but the T3 is the best rod I have ever used.
I have used Winston, Sage, and a few others.but this rod is the gold standard in my book.
It was given to me as a gift, along with a leather case, it is one of my best rods.
Another worth mentioning is the Frequent Flyer,5wgt.7 section a good rod that cast like a 2 piece rod.
I would reccomend this rod to those who would know the diffrence in a good rod and a great one.

I broke my T3 three times before it was one year old...very fragile rod...when it broke the last time, I asked Orvis for another version and they sent me a new Hydros..Orvis does stand by their warrantee!

Customer Service

Excellent all three time the rod was sent back.

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varios

The T3 is a fine fly rod is you are careful with it. The performance is about as good as there is. I have broken two of these rods in the last 5 months. I will not have another one because I demand better durability in my equipment.

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Orvis TLS, Winston Ibis, St. Croix various

This is an excellent rod. I happened to visit the retail store the day before they had a big sale and the salesperson told me they had these rods half off for one day only, first-come first served. He let me go out back with one to the casting pool and cast around. I instantly fell in love. The next day, I was waiting in the parking lot 45 minutes before they opened to make sure I had one. I use it for everything. It has plenty of power and can really get the line out as well as send a tiny dry through a 2 foot window between trees and lay it out with bairly a ripple. I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for versatility. I have an 8'6" 5 weight 8.0 mid-flex.

Customer Service

I have never had to use it but I hear it is top-notch.

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Custom, St. Croix, Temple Fork

Awesome! I've had a multitude of Flyrods throughout my years of Flyfishing (20+yrs). I started out with a fibreglass rod I bought at Dunhams. It finally broke while I was wrestling a foul hooked carp on the Clinton River in Rochester Hills, MI. I then moved on to graphite rods, and now the T3. I've purchased the 8'6" 4wt 4 pc model. In fact, I did it today. Got a great deal too! At Bass Pro Shops, it's selling for $595 minus 25% if you trade in an older rod for it. That was a no brainer for a habitual fly fisherman like myself. Performance???? Incredible (Period). I consider myself a pretty darn good fly fisherman already (I'm trying to be sincere here), and this rod just makes it a whole lot easier. I can cast accuratley with minimal effort. For example, I immediatly put the rod to the test, and took it to my favorite trout stream....Paint Creek in Rochester Hills, MI. Standing on along the bank that was about 4-5 ft high above the water, and I had this tiny tree that I had to cast over. The stream is about 10-12 ft wide, and it was shaded by the canopy of taller trees. There was section of riffles above me, a good feeding lane on the otherside, and the beginnings of a pool directly below. I made an initial false cast into the water just to get my line out and my nymph in. I stretched out my casting arm (right arm) over the tiny tree directly below me, following the drift of the nymph, and with a deep breath I made a cast across the stream shooting the line inbetween two branches with a window of 3 ft. This was a size 16 beadhead Pheasant Tail with a number 4 split shot 1-1/2 ft up the leader. It took just a flick of my wrist, and very little effort. The rod had incredible feel to it, and I could sense without even seeing the fly where it was going....across the stream, slightly above my position, and directly along the edge of that run. After 3 casts, I hooked into a fiesty 14 16" rainbow. What fun! Then my cellphone rang, and I had to call it quites. The wife was starting to give me her list of ultimatums if I didn't get my ass home within the hour......I'll be back.... Catching fish was never so easy. The hard part is telling the wife why it cost $500...(I just need to remind her how much her last purse cost)

Customer Service

No experience yet with Orvis Customer service.

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Nothing similar, but I've flyfished many rods.

I started flyfishing with an Orvis Trident 2pc 5wt. The rod was great for a beginner like myself and very forgiving. When the time came for an upgrade I checked out Sage and Winston along with the new T3 as it had just come out. Due to my experience with the quality of other Orvis products I have purchased I went with the T3 865 Mid Flex. I must say that I am extremely pleased with the rod. Probably my favorite feature is it's all around capability. Long power casts or short delicate presentations are no problem for this rod. I fish in the mountains of Western North Carolina and fishing can vary from having the opportunity for 40'-60' casts to being in very close quarters having to make short flips on small streams with lots of over hang. I fish everything from #20-#12 drys, tiny midges, double nymphs, and streamers and the rod works beautifully with them all. I would have to say that the ability of the rod certainly maximizes my skill and fishing abilities. I think you would be hard pressed to find a rod with any better quality, fit, finish, and just plain beauty.

Customer Service

Over the last few years I have bought vests, waders, boots, tools, and other trinkets from Orvis and have never had a problem with any of it. It has all been great quality. This past fall I broke the tip off of my T3 trying to get my line untangled from a tree! I called Orvis and, of course, their warranty covers any product defect and even covers when you do something dumb like I did to break your rod. They told me to send the rod in for repair and that I would receive it back in 3 to 6 weeks. Two weeks later I was very pleasantly suprised to receive my rod back. The really nice thing is that it wasn't my rod at all. They had sent me a brand new T3. Only the tip section of my rod was broken so I expected that they would just fit on a new second section and I would have been completely satisfied with that. Instead, I get back a brand new rod. You can't beat that!

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Orvis Trident 5wt, Casting with Sage and Winston.

Fast, light, comfortable

It is expensive.

The T3 is the fastest rod I have ever used. The 9' 9wt 4 pc tip flex 10.0 easily throws a 9 or 10 wt line crisply. Tight loops are the norm for even an intermediate to advanced caster like myself. I have a Scott Alpha series and St. Croix Ultra Ledgend that I love but the T3 has now taken the top spot in my arsenal.

Customer Service

Orvis has a great reputation but I have not needed to test it.

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Scott, St. Croix, Loomis, Sage

In 5 weights I own or have owned Sage, Lamiglas, St. Croix, Scott, Loomis, and Redington, and this rod is at least the equal of any current equivalent model on the market. It performs wonderfully and it is a beautiful piece of equipment. Orvis really did it right.

None. The price is stiff, but this is truly a lifetime rod. If you bought it, you will never say "Gee, I wish I had bought this other rod, etc.". It is one of the best, if not arguably the best (though I love my Sage XP and Scott S3, too!).

Orvis has come a long, long way since 10 years ago when they were so far behind everyone else in rod design and technology and came up with the unconditional warranty gig to get folks in the door. This rod (a 865, mid flex 8.0) is a serious casting and fish-catching tool. The tip loads quickly and easily for close in work, and it has plenty of butt section to carry a lot of line if a person is so inclined to cast their whole line. Sage, in my opinion, if the benchmark by which the others are compared. This time, in many ways, this T3 is comparable to the equivalent Sage (XP). I have both.

Customer Service

Not necessary yet (hopefully never, Orvis is great, though.

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Sage, Lamiglas, Redington, St. Croix, Scott.

Generates a ton of line speed and power. Incredibly light to carry and hold all day.Perfect for smallish streams. I have used it on local tailwaters and it handles that larger fish very well. It has a pretty sharp look to add to a great performing rod.

Maybe a little to stiff for what some people want in a 3wt. They are expecting the full-flex version to be out very soon though.

I currently have the 8foot 4inch 3wt midflex T3. This liitle rod is great! It can throw delicate casts with small dries and if need be cast a streamer very well.

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I have used other Orvis 3wts such as the TLS tip flex which performes very comparably to the T3 mid-flex. I have also used the Trident TL 4pc 3wt. That rod is also a beauty but you can no longer get t