Numerous reports regarding the 1986 Pro-Am Walleye Tournament proclaimed it the “best ever.” Participants stated they caught and released literally hundreds of three-pound walleye during the Port Clinton tournament. Dan Galbincea, a veteran Lake Erie charter captain and developer of the Erie Dearie walleye lure, and his team led on the first day in the pro division with a ten-walleye limit measuring 247.9 inches. The next day his team added ten walleye that measured 223.1 inches—471.0 total—and the all-female team took first place in the pro division!
Galbincea’s daughters, Janice Thomas and Diane Stevens of Cortland, Linda Green and Louise Matta of Port Clinton, and Kathy Norman of Toledo comprised this winning squad, having competed together for seven years. The winning female team led 156 other teams throughout the competition through the final weigh-in, a tournament first. And Captain Galbincea predictably claimed the Erie Dearie Gold lure as a major reason for the win!
Both days the team worked the big fish in 40 feet of water north of Kelleys Island. They achieved a tournament record, averaging over 23-1/2 inches per fish. When he accepted the team’s first-place pro-division award, Lake Erie’s “Old Man of the Sea” announced that “It’s about time!”
The team reported that they generally just fished heavy lures, 3/4-ounce Erie Dearies. They tried one “draggin’ pole,” a heavy-weight worm harness spinner rig that drags on the bottom to stir up big lake-floor fish. Matta said they hooked one of their bigger fish that way.
The first-place winners took $8,500, seven Penn reels, and seven Humminbird 4000 LCR electronic fish finders. Second-place winners, the Stedkes, received $4,000, four Penn reels, and four Humminbird 4000 LCR units.
Captain Dan began his love of fishing in 1936 at age 14, making doughballs at 4 a.m. for carp fishing on the Mahoning River in Liberty, Ohio, his hometown. He served during World War II. On returning home, he became an arc welder for Mullin’s Manufacturing, selling minnows to local shops in his spare time. In 1947, he married Helen Kachernko and they had five children. On a Sunday drive they came upon Mosquito Lake, were taken by it, and gave the owner $1,200 for an “acre of swamp.” By 1954 he’d built the Causeway Sport Shop on Mosquito Lake in Mecca, Ohio.
Also in 1954, he decided to improve on a standard spinning lure by adding a weight-forward feature, and in 1956 called the result Old Reliable. He worked to improve this design and by 1960 he had his lure, which became a star in the fishing industry. The name of the new lure was the punch line of a family joke: Dan was always going to Lake Erie to fish and Helen would ask why he didn’t ever stay home. She finally gave up asking and said, “Fine, go to your Lake Erie, Dearie.”
He bought his first 23-foot wood Lyman in 1962 and would catch 300 to 400 walleyes a day from “The Dead Sea” (Lake Erie). He named both his 1964 25-foot Lyman and his 1972 30-footer the Erie Dearie. In 1984, he and his all-female team won their first Pro-Am trophy for seventh place, third place in 1985, then first place in 1986, all with the Erie Dearie lure.
Dan always wanted to die with a fishing pole in his hands and on Lake Erie, his second home. In June 1996, he was recovering from a stroke while fishing on the lake with family and his best friend, Captain Jack Bolduan. At the end of the day they started back to the dock. Before they made it, he’d had a fatal heart attack.
His family, including his trophy-winning daughters, continued to run the store, calling the growing company Captain Dan’s Manufacturing. The Erie Dearie legacy encompasses two impressive stories, connected by the love of walleye fishing—and winning.