Denny Grinold’s resume reads like the Who’s Who of Great Lakes fisheries management. Outdoor Life Magazine included him in a 2010 feature about the 20 best anglers on the planet. Even the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission has bestowed honors on him for his leadership.

But it didn’t start that way for the 30 year veteran Lake Michigan charter fishing captain out of Grand Haven, who operates a 36 foot Bertram called Old Grin. Grinold, now 70, began fishing with his dad and brothers as a boy, hitting the little creeks around the family’s DeWitt home.

Grinold, who owns a Lansing auto repair business, is the former president of the Michigan Charter Boat Association and remains the organization’s head of state affairs.  He is the chairman for the state’s Lake Michigan Citizen’s Advisory Committee and the U.S. Section of advisors for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to name just a few of the volunteer posts he holds.

Grinold is best known for his level-headedness, his willingness to listen and his determination to gain consensus on issues that often raise the hackles of professional and hard-core anglers.  Grinold’s involvement with Great Lakes fishery issues began when he actively participated in the 1985 Consent Decree discussions representing the interests of sport fishermen and supporting the principle of “a shared resource” within the tribal waters of the Treaty of Washington (1836).  He then took a leadership role representing sport fishermen with the DNR in discovering what happened when the Lake Michigan Chinook salmon fishery collapsed in 1988.

“There was a lot of finger-pointing as to who was responsible,” Grinold said. “Little was known about the life cycle of salmon.  Grinold became a member of a special Lake Michigan task force that was convened by the state to examine what had happened to the salmon.  That involvement became a turning point, catalyzing the citizen activist and problem solver within him.  The group had identified the problem as Bacterial Kidney Disease, caused by the stress of having too many predators (salmon) in the lake. Anglers, until that point, had clamored for more fish to be planted.

The finding spawned change within the Michigan Department of Natural Resources which began to screen for the disease and established charter boat reporting requirements, among other things.  The task force then morphed into the Lake Michigan Citizen’s Advisory Committee, a group of angling stakeholders from up and down the shoreline that still meets to review fisheries issues.

Grinold saw the value that came of it and how angler participation on the committee cooled some of the heated rhetoric and fostered better outcomes.  He and others began pushing for the formation of similar groups for other Great Lakes.  He has utilized that same approach as Chairman of the U.S. Section of advisors for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission marshalling the International Joint Commission’s efforts to control sea lamprey and the maintenance of fish populations in the Great Lakes.

For his dedication, involvement and leadership he has earned this award and the respect and admiration of all who value our anadromous sport fishery.