To be honest, the ''last cast'' reflects a tad of desperation in the main. Having said all that, when you have spent several hours out in the bleak wind swept flats of Lincolnshire in December without a touch, ''then that is truely desperation''. Especially if like me your fishing is entirely mobile.
Just occasionally it does pay off with a single fish that warrants the proverbial ''last cast, or twenty''. But in the main it's a vain hope, but we're anglers, so we persist. I wouldn't have it any other way.