The term “overbuilt” is one of those marketing-speak monikers that gets thrown around a lot these days when talking about outdoor gear. It’s a fancy way of saying that said gear’s designers prioritize things like durability and performance over adhering to established pricing conventions for a given product in a given class. In truth, there are only a handful of companies that overbuild their gear.

Writing well about fly fishing isn’t easy. To pull it off, you have to avoid the usual tropes and clichés and you can’t afford to come off pretentious. That’s a difficult line to walk, because while our own experiences are important and dignified to us, will they matter to anyone else?