I guess we can say history was made yesterday when JD and Bob came back from the waters near the dolomite port with two large King Salmon caught by casting with light tackle from a small aluminum boat. Now everything we’ve learned about salmon fishing has been turned upside-down! No one has ever caught salmon with any other method than trolling in the conventional manner. With both fish to his credit, JD takes the 2006 Fish-Off Championship hands down. For the record, the method was Bob’s idea, and they waited until their last day to test it out. What a shocker! They endured rough conditions on top of it all, and reportedly had an anxious time motoring back with their life jackets donned. Well, it’s all documented now; Foot and I said good-bye to our chums today, anticipating the traditional “phase two” of our stay. We wasted no time using the Sartoris Technique out in the channel, but no nibbles, no nothin’ was the result, so we shifted gears and set off for Port Dolomite in a small craft, intent on duplicating or outperforming JD’s effort. We worked and worked, saw salmon rolling at the surface, even jumping, all points of the compass, cast after cast, with pike poles and dipsy-diver rods from the Sylvan, wrists getting tender, my hands on the verge of cramping. We watched the “Maumee” out of Cleveland come in and dock. I never knew exactly how these big ships did it—they come in fast, spin clockwise and then back into the loading area, with empty holds ready to be filled with high-grade dolomite for the steel industry. We kept fishing the entire time without a single strike, even though we knew the elusive creatures were close at hand. We saw them, breaking the water, as if to mock us. JD’s extraordinary “final night luck” was beyond our acquisition.