Last Spring I was with about 30 people for a long weekend camping trip up on my favorite lake. I took my buddy Stanley out in the boat with me. I anchored the boat by both ends parallel to shore and we proceeded to fish within easy sight of our camp. The air was calm as can be and If I do say so I was on top of my form with nice tight loops and laying the fly down gently each time. My buddy was slapping the water on his back cast with large nasty looping forward casts, His fly was making a big ole plop on the water as it splashed down. It was not pretty to watch but the fish didn't care and we were both catching lots of them and having fun. He was decked out in all new gear and at the recommendation of a flyshop salesman had purchased the most expensive 5 wt he could find. He asked me if I thought that the expensive rod and reel were a good buy. It was a Winston and when I saw it I began to drool. I have a medium priced sage which I really love but since 2007 when I cast one I have always coveted a Winston. I cannot cast farther with a Winston than I can with my Sage but still I wanted one. Alas He has mondo bucks and I do not.

We fished till noon and kept 4 good sized trout between us for camp lunch and headed back to shore to cook em up.

The comments floating around when we got back were, how come your casts aren't as nice and round as Stanleys? Most people agreed that my casts didn't look as good as Stanleys did.
When I said well they were longer casts by about 20 feet or more there was disbelief from most of the onlookers. Stanley who knew perfectly well that His casts were not up to par said " don't blame Roger He has a really old rod and He did his best, My rod brand new, plus it cost more. That seemed to satisfy everyone. The reality of the situation didn't matter it was the perception that won the day. Stanley snickered and gave me that Ha ha I got yah look.

Instead of casting as we had done in the morning We spent the afternoon trolling around the lake , I made Stanley row. What goes around comes around.

I have underlined the most important things from that mornings fishing.