Littoral Zone #17 | History and Tying Techniques of Balanced Flies with Jerry McBride
Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing Podcast
Dave Stewart
4.7 • 530 Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
#753 Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/753
Presented by: Four Wheel Campers, Smitty's Fly Box, Intrepid Camp Gear
When Phil Rowley first came across a balanced leech nearly 20 years ago, he didn't expect it to become one of the most influential flies in his Stillwater arsenal.
In this episode, Phil sits down with the guy who helped make it all happen—Jerry McBride. You'll hear how the balanced fly came to life, the gear that made it work, and why this style of fly has become a Stillwater staple.
If you've ever fished a balanced fly under an indicator—or just wondered what the big deal is—this is the origin story you've been waiting for.
Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/753
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Littoral Zone podcast. I'm your host, Felroli. The Littoral Zone or Shoal Area of the Lake is a place where the majority of the action takes place. My podcast is intended to do the same. Put you where the action is to help you improve your stillwater fly fishing. On each broadcast, I, along with guests from all over the world, |
| 0:24.2 | will be providing you with information, tips and tricks, flies, presentation techniques, |
| 0:29.7 | along with different lakes or regions to explore. |
| 0:33.5 | I hope you enjoy today's podcast. |
| 0:36.0 | Please feel free to email me with your stillwater-related fly-fishing questions and comments. |
| 0:41.5 | I do my best to answer as many as we can prior to each episode, just before the main content. |
| 0:48.3 | Thanks for listening. |
| 0:49.6 | I hope you enjoy today's show. |
| 0:52.6 | For close to 20 years, I've been the fly-time columnist for BC Outdoors magazine. |
| 0:58.2 | Early in my tenure, BC flyfisher Trevor Speely introduced me to a novel fly called a balanced leech. |
| 1:04.7 | Little did I realize how this initial introduction would shape my approach to stillwater flies |
| 1:09.5 | and how I fish them. In my recently released book |
| 1:12.9 | tying flies with Phil Roli and friends, you can find Trevor's balanced leech. I'll make sure to |
| 1:18.7 | include a link to my book in the show notes. A balanced leach has become one of my go-to flies. |
| 1:25.0 | If I had to choose one stillwater fly pattern to fish with, it would |
| 1:28.5 | probably be a balanced leech. My favorite color combination features a body of black and blue |
| 1:33.8 | dubbing, or bruised as I call it, in combination with a gold tungsten, chartreuse tungsten, |
| 1:39.6 | fluorescent pink tungsten, or hot orange tungsten bead. Balanced flies have performed well wherever I've had the good fortune to fish, |
| 1:48.3 | in eastern and western Canada, across the United States, and into South America. |
| 1:54.1 | Argentina's Lagostrobel, also known as Jurassic Lake, has rainbows that adore balanced leeches. |
| 2:00.6 | Come to think of it, the giant cutthroat of Nevada's Pyramidbows that adore balanced leeches. Come to think of it, the giant cutthroat |
| 2:02.5 | of Nevada's Pyramid Lake, love balanced leeches too. Since that initial introduction, |
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