I have a theory about fishiness based on thousands of days on the water fishing with hundreds and hundreds of different people, and here it is:
Every person is born with an inherent fishy factor that sticks with you throughout your life. Regardless of experience and ability in angling, your fishy factor will play a big part in your productivity as an angler in any given day on the water. No matter how many different places you go, how good your technical casting and presentation skills become, your fishy factor will remain unchanged. It is a part of you, and you can't cast your way out of it if it is lower than you like.
I like to put it on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the luckiest damn angler you have ever known, and 1 being the guy who can't seem to catch a fish on the very best days. As a guide, hanging out with 1s leads to pretty boring days, fishing with 10s is usually very exciting. The dream is fishing with great anglers who are also high on the fishy factor spectrum. That is when the magic happens!
What's your fishy factor?