Linda Green stands in the Ottawa County Museum next to the jacket she wore as part of the all-woman team who won the 1986 Pro-Am Walleye Tournament using the Erie Dearie lure. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

BY SHERI TRUSTY

PORT CLINTON – One of walleye fishing’s most premier lures, the Erie Dearie, was created in Mecca, a small township in Northeast Ohio, but it gained fame in Port Clinton and helped the city earn its rightful claim as the Walleye Capital of the World. The lure’s fame was pulled by strong currents all the way to big sporting goods stores like Cabela’s and Bass Pro.

The Erie Dearie was designed by Dan and Helen Galbincea, a young couple who were busy raising a family and running a bait shop in Mecca.

The Galbinceas began designing the lure in the late 1950s and, after much trial and error in Mosquito Lake next to their shop, they had it perfected by 1960. They hired a couple to manufacture the lures in Indiana, and Dan would load his station wagon with boxes of Erie Dearies and sell them in towns along the lake, including Port Clinton. The lure’s popularity eventually exploded, helping to attract sales for the Galbinceas and helping to attract anglers to Port Clinton.

Greg and Courtney Chopko of Mecca Township stand next to the Erie Dearie Park sign in Port Clinton last year. The Mecca Township Historical Society is working to have an Ohio Historical Marker honoring the Erie Dearie installed in Mecca. (Submitted photo)

“Before the mid-70s and early 80s, nobody fished on Lake Erie. Everyone from here in Mecca would drive to Canada to fish,” said Greg Chopko, a Mecca Township Historical Society Trustee. “When the Erie Dearie got invented and word got out about catching walleye, everyone stopped going to Canada.”

Chopko said he traveled to Lake Erie to fish for walleye with his grandfather about three days a week in the 1980s.

“We didn’t know anybody who fished with anything but the Erie Dearie,” he said.

The Galbinceas’ daughter, Cathy Brunstetter, said her mother was “the brains behind the business.”

“She raised five kids and ran the whole business,” she said.

In honor of America’s 250th birthday, the Ottawa County Museum created a new exhibit featuring the history and impact of the Erie Dearie. Part of the exhibit is dedicated to the 7th Annual Lake Erie Pro-Am Walleye Tournament in May, 1986, when Dan’s all-woman team won the tournament using his Erie Dearie lures. Linda Green of Port Clinton was on the team, and her tournament jacket is part of the display. Also on the team were the Galbinceas’ daughters, Janice Thomas and Diane Stevens.

Linda was a seasoned angler who worked as first mate on her husband’s charter boat for years. But when she jokingly told Dan she wanted to be on his 1986 team, she didn’t expect him to take her seriously. He did, and she was part of the all-woman team that beat 156 other entrants in the tournament’s professional division.

The Ottawa County Museum recently unveiled a new exhibit honoring the impact of the Erie Dearie lure. (Photo courtesy of the Ottawa County Museum)

The win helped bolster the lure’s fame even more. The museum exhibit features a newspaper story by Tribune outdoor columnist, Bruce Knodel, in which he wrote: “No doubt the Erie Dearie has victimized more walleye than any other single bait.”

Linda said her husband, Jim Green, and Dan were among the first 100 charter captains to be licensed after Lake Erie recovered from pollution and was once again fishable. Jim became a member of the state Erie Dearie fishing team.

“Dan was so kind and so supportive of all the guys and their families. We were all so young,” Linda said. “The Erie Dearie came in different colors. I always like the chartreuse. I was always catching walleye on the chartreuse.”

Although the Erie Dearie was developed through the loving collaboration between Dan and Helen, the lure’s name spawned in an angry environment. Dan often wanted to fish on the lake, and Helen got tired of her husband leaving home for the water.

“You just go to your Erie, Dearie,” Helen often angrily told Dan as he walked out the door.

When the couple that was manufacturing the lures decided to retire, Brunstetter and her brother, Dan Galbincea III, took over the business.

“My brother and I drove to Indiana and brought the business back to Mecca,” Brunstetter said.

The family eventually sold the Erie Dearie business and was shocked to learn that manufacturing of the lure was moved to Nicaragua. The family doesn’t know who owns it now.

“Somebody is still manufacturing it, but I don’t know who,” Dan III said.

The lure may be gone, but its impact remains. The Mecca Township Historical Society is working to have an Ohio Historical Marker placed at Mosquito Lake to honor the history and impact of the Erie Dearie. They plan to submit their application by May and will wait to see if it gains approval.

The recognition would be well-deserved. The Erie Dearie helped bolster walleye fishing in Lake Erie, motivated Port Clinton to name a park after the lure, inspired the annual Walleye Drop and Walleye Fest, and helped make Port Clinton the Walleye Capital of the World.