Albright knot - backing to fly line

Jason,

Do you mean how loose the knot can be tied or how long the tags can be - or something else?

To address the first two in one: the knot has to be pretty snug and tight. I usually work the loops of backing towards the loop in the fly line while tightening. When the knot is tight, you can trim both lines very close to the knot.

Or did you mean something else?

Martin

Jamie,

You certainly must have tied it wrong! It might pull out if tied too loosely, but this is a knot used by anglers who fish for salmon and tarpon, and trust me: it works! I have used it for many years without a single failure.

And it's not terrible either. Try tying a Bimini Twist and then talk about terrible knots! This one is simple and easy, can be tied waterside with no tools and to the best of my experience it holds up to most things that swim.

Martin

Paul,

I generally use the same number of turns for all sizes of leaders, which is about 5-6. As long as the knot really "bites" into the fly line and tightens well, my experience that this number will work well.

I have used the knot for coated wire bite tippets for pike fishing, but never mono-to-mono. A large part of its strength comes from the mono gripping the coating of the line it's tied on to, so I'm not sure mono-to-mono would work.

Martin