The Grind or the Gimme?

A week ago, I wrote a post about a good evening that I had at my favorite HOA pond.  In the post, I explained that I used a black wooly bugger and gave my justification for using the fly.  On my way home and for parts of the evening, I thought about how the first fly that I selected was the one that caught all of the fish.  At first, my hubris got the best of me, and I felt like some sort of genius.  I had cracked the fishing code on the first attempt for Pete's sake!  On the other hand, I missed out on the trial and error that usually comes with a fishing session.  At it's core, fishing is an experiment where you change variables in order to achieve a desired outcome.  (That sounds like a science teacher because I am one).  

My question to the readers of this post is which one do you prefer?  Sure, it's nice to catch fish from the first cast to the last cast!  Who wouldn't enjoy that?  However, are there times that you enjoy the grind?  Do you enjoy figuring out the right fly at the right depth in the right spot?  In other words, do you enjoy the grind of cracking the code or do you want the gimme where you catch fish with the first fly that you pick?  Maybe this is a moving target and it depends on other factors?  Perhaps this is something that you want to mull over but feel free to leave a comment down below with your opinion.  Either way, it is something to think about and I hope this post was at least thought provoking.