Godin, Galusha fall short of repeat bid

The curse of the defending champs continues.
Last year’s Emo Walleye Classic winners, Bill Godin and Ralph Galusha, went into the 2008 tournament knowing the troubles teams have had trying to repeat—and fell into the same trap with their 17th place showing.
A quick historical look at past champions reveals the 2004 winning tandem of Dale Hartlin and Dan Pollard getting zero weight the following year. Then the 2006 winners, Todd Grennier and Eric Lessman, suffered a similar fate in getting skunked to finish dead last a year ago.
This year’s champs—Doug McBride and Steve Ballan—may be the exception. After slipping to 11th-place last year, they managed to reclaim the crown they previously had won in 2005.
So there’s hope yet for you other former champions.
“It’s very hard to defend a title on the river,” Godin said. “There’s a history here in Emo where if you win it one year, you kind of falter the next year, so we’re still glad with where we ended up anyway.”
The Devlin duo decided to go away from what worked for them last year (going towards the dam in Fort Frances) and instead try their luck in the opposite direction.
“Well, we made the decision yesterday [Friday] to go fish a different part of the [river] than we normally do and what can you say, you learn from your mistakes,” Godin said.
“We caught a lot of fish, but we just couldn’t catch the big ones and that cost us.”
The pair headed towards the dam on Saturday, but couldn’t muster enough weight to get back into the thick of things.
Their Day Two weigh-in of 6.27 pounds, coupled with their first day catch of 5.54, gave them a two-day total of 11.81—not nearly enough to reel in the leading teams.
“We went back up to the dam [on Day Two] and had a couple big fish on that we lost,” Godin recalled. “That would’ve definitely helped us a lot but, hey, you can’t win them all.”
Godin, owner of Lake Despair Lodge in Devlin, recently won the Sturgeon Bay Open in Wisconsin with partner Mike Salvador. As well, he and Galusha had three-straight top 10 finishes in Emo before claiming the top prize last year.
But the pair still have their other river win from a year ago to defend in the fall.
They captured the Rainy River Walleye Tournament crown last September which, along with their EWC win in the spring, gave them the undisputed moniker of “River Kings.”