THE LAST CAST IS WHERE ALL THE MAGIC HAPPENS!

Or is it???

It is incredible the number of quality fish that seem to get caught on the last cast of the day. You do it all the time - "I swear this is the last cast, then I'm going home." No sooner do you utter these words in your head than BOOM! a big fish is on the line!

One of the last fish of the day on a relatively slow day on the water.

But just as I think about all the incredible "last cast" fish I've landed and have seen landed while guiding and casually fishing appear in the memory bank, all of the other incredible fish that were caught on the first or second cast also come to mind.

So is there something magical to the last cast, or are the fish you catch on the "last cast" just that memorable because it was indeed the actual last cast of the day?

The first fish of the day, first cast, first time throwing a mouse pattern on an un-named creek.

Knowing that the last cast is the end of your day on the water, can sometimes make us more aware of what our fly is doing. It makes us fish it all the way through the run. We concentrate on the perfect placement, the perfect drift, the perfect swing or the perfect "twitch." And to me, that's the key: concentration and fishing a fly "perfectly."

Some of us go through the motions at some point during a day of fishing. We get a little tired, sometimes bored, or we honestly don't think we are going to catch a fish, so our concentration and care start to diminish.

This begs the question: Is concentration the key to the 90% of anglers catching 10% of the fish? It very well could be. We all love the sport, catching and landing big fish and spending incredible days on the water. What really separates us as anglers or what is the difference in success from one day to the next? It might very well be paying attention to what's going on at the other end of the line - all the time.

This is something I've put a lot of thought into over the years and it definitely drives me to try and make every cast just as productive as all of my last casts!

Here's to incredible moments on the water and tight lines!