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If you have a line bump, you might want to zero in on that portion of the line and try to run it through your fingers at a 90 degree angle to smooth it out. The weave in the silk might have become tighter in that part of the line but sometimes you can work out that tightness by redistributing it throughout the surrounding weave. Hope that helps.

LEO -- Interesting points. I haven't had any problem with Phoenix line weights either, but others have. I wonder if this is connected to the (mostly graphite) fly rod industry's tendency to design tapers to achieve faster and faster line speeds. In the course of these efforts by rodmakers, line makers compensate by designating as "5-weight," for example, various lines that are actually heavier than the 5-weight standard. In the meantime, rod tapers designed for those false "5-weight" lines become even faster as rod designers try to catch up. This focus on achieving faster line speeds in the grpahite industry might be at the heart of this phenomenon. The cycle continues until the lines become almost a full size heavier than designated; weight designations on rods, too, become skewed to the upside. In the meantime, the original standards fall by the wayside. Faster line speed is not necessarily a virtue, of course, but it becomes a touchstone for industry claims of better technology -- along with lighter and lighter rods made of graphite composites. Last year's rods are overtaken by "faster, lighter and better" models. Sales expand. Fly fishing becomes aerobic. Eventually the affect of these distorted line designations spill over into the world of cane rods, and we scratch our heads wondering why.

I fish graphite rods in salt water and invariably over-weight the rod, i.e., fish a 9-weight (or heavier) line on an 8-weight rod. Rods seem to cast slower and easier that way while achieving excellent distance. I first came to this realization when I went to fish with my 8-weight rod and mistakenly, though serendipitously, brought along a reel with 9-weight line. Out on the flat, I was pleasantly surprised at how much better I was casting. I believe that many others overweight their graphite these days. At some point, the industry should, I suppose, as a service to fly fishers, bring line and rod designations back to some kind of standard so we aren't chasing our tails trying to buy the right line for the rod or the right rod for the line.