Page 51 - Joseph B. Healy "The Pocket Guide to Fishing Knots"

with as few moves as possible and to try to get the smallest knot

possible. I remember when I was first starting to fly fish and I saw an
illustration for the Albright Knot that featured ten to twelve loops—that’s a
lot of loops! It was super intimidating at first, and I think I spent a lot of
time and quite a bit of backing perfecting it. But when it does come
together, it’s actually a very attractive knot. It has that slim, tight profile.
When you get all of those wraps to lie perfectly one next to the other, and
you tug as hard as you can and you can’t make anything budge, it’s

satisfying. And because it’s hidden inside your reel, you never see it. If
you’re fishing quite a bit, you will retie your Blood Knots, but the Albright
Knot is something you don’t want to worry about. You want to know you
have ten to twelve wraps connecting that thing and there’s no way it’s
going to fail you. The process is very satisfying: to get everything to work

perfectly in a somewhat complicated knot, to pull it tight, and have
everything seat perfectly, and be able to clip those tag ends really close.”
Phil doesn’t feel he needs to use super glue to make the knot stronger:
Once it’s tied, it’s tied. “Putting super glue on it is gilding the lily. It’s a
knot, so it’s supposed to hold. Let’s not complicate it.” He uses the
Albright exclusively to attach his fly line to the backing on the reel, as
many fly fishers do. Anglers report using the knot to join lines of different

diameters, or monofilament or fluorocarbon to braided lines, often in big-
game saltwater applications.
Phil reminds me he used to tie my Albright Knots when we worked
together while I edited Saltwater Fly Fishing and he edited American
Angler. (Okay, I suppose he did tie one or two for me.) “When I was a
fishing guide in Alaska, I got a lot of knot practice back in the day. To get

me from the fly to the backing on my reel, I feel like it should go Clinch
Knot, Blood Knot, Perfection Loop, Albright Knot. It’s also cool to tie a
knot named after (famous fishing guide) Jimmie Albright.”
Albright was a saltwater pioneer who guided countless anglers and
many celebrities in the Florida Keys, including baseball legend Ted
Williams. In the New York Times obituary when Albright died in 1998,
Richard Stanczyk of Bud ‘n’ Mary’s Marina in Islamorada is quoted as

saying: “Jimmie and Ted were a lot alike. Both of them were competitive,
expert, tough, and cantankerous. Jimmie had a great sense of humor, but
he was also very dedicated and disciplined. He took his guiding seriously,
and helped make the industry a legitimate profession.” Albright advanced