Rickard Gustafsson | Saturday, 20 September 2025
Do you know about Paul’s stupid bell? You probably do and if you don’t you should know and will know soon at least. I know about the bell. I know a lot of things that Paul talks about. The problem is that I’m stupid and forget about all the smart things Paul tells me. I’m trying to better, I’ve started to write down all the smart things I “discover” during practice. Well I have been writing them down but random or structured notes on the computer doesn’t seem as effective as writing them down with pen and paper.
By “discover” I mean that it can be things I’ve found out earlier, by myself or being told by Paul. I can spend a whole training session in frustration only to rediscover something that I should’ve known. Can be both frustrating and quite entertaining. Very entertaining when Paul tells me how many times I have discovered something.
My most recent rediscovery was Paul’s bell. And it is not stupid. But that is just what I call it at the moment. I think it can help me remember it better. So the problem I had was that my back cast turned to shit as soon as I turned around watching it. I’m talking about closed stance short line casts. Shouldn’t be a problem at all. But looking a these poor loops I knew they were better before I looked at them.
How do I know that the back cast was good before looking at it? It isn’t a quantum problem that the loops being affected by the observation. You can feel the difference between a good and a bad back cast. When a good back cast unrolls you feel and know it has unrolled. So looking at those poor loops and trying different things to make them better. Trying all those things that doesn’t really matter, like what the wrist is doing or not. After a while I end up at something good. Something very similar to Paul’s bell.
Paul’s bell is just an analogy for a virtual target, but the more things you can add to your virtual target the better. So know that Paul’s (stupid) bell is there in the air waiting to be rung it is hard to not hit it. If you do this well you will both see and hear the fly hit the bell. So if you don’t have this target in your casting you can borrow Paul’s bell. Sometimes Paul targets magically get replaced by something else that fits you better. But you have to start somewhere. And I like the bell for the moment.
What Paul’s bell teaches you is that a false cast is an actual cast, to a target. A false cast shouldn’t be that you just fling the line somewhere in the air and hope for the best. An actual cast will be so much better even if you can get very good at just flinging the line away somewhere.
I think that all of the great instructors talks about the bell in some way. Just have a look:
Paul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNAm00zKshQ
Lasse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=571sYF5X6aE
Hayes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PABl19Zk8o0
And a bonus from Lasse, everyone should see this also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y8WAMH0AVE
This Saturday I’m away arranging a meet up for Det Perfekta Kastet. The Perfect Cast, or as I otherwise translate it the Swedish version of BFCC. At least that’s where I pickup most of my inspiration for this association. There will be some demonstrations of fly casting. Some tuition in fly casting, hopefully I can help some of the attendees to improve their casting and give them some ideas. And some fun competitions.
Cheers, Rickard
PoD: Paul has lost his bell, can you help Paul find his bell?