I was working on a fly rod this afternoon and it occurs to me that when using the really small guides you have to be very careful about aligning them. If they are not very straight then the line tends to travel in sort of a point to point direction instead of a straight line. With larger guides this isn't much of a problem since there is more room for error and the larger rings will still sort of overlap even if the alignment is not perfect. Smaller guides that are out of alignment will send the line through in such a way that it is almost sandwiched between the sides of the guides. I did some test casts that really stunk but when I carefully aligned the guides things picked up and the casts went really well.

Sorry if I don't explain this very well. But I did observe it and thought I'd pass it along.

That's an interesting thought and one that has merit. Larger guides can indeed be out of alignment farther before they start to cause problems. We'll just have to be more careful on the smaller guides. They do offer some advantages to a point, but if you can't get them aligned well enough to keep from having this line "pinch" you are better off moving up a size.

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