There used to be a guide here by the name of Pablo and while working my way down along the edge of the lake this morning I thought about Pablo and how much he loved this lake. The one thing he would always tell me is that I should start with a few short casts in front of me before wading out into the lake. While thinking about him and his words of advice, I was standing in waist deep water trying to launch a RIO Outbound Short out into the lake as far as possible. After I made the cast, I would count slowly to ten giving the intermediate line time to sink and then start a slow retrieve. I was in “mechanical mode” – we’ve all been there, you make a thousand casts, hour after hour with no hits, strikes, or hook-ups. After a while you lose all concept of time and place because your mind is somewhere else, usually a long way away from the present and you are simply going through the motions, like a robot.