Awards Committee

For Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame Enshrinement/Induction Lists.
Click on the individual’s bio button below for a brief information.

Tim Lesmeister

Awards Committee Chairman

Tim Lesmeister

Awards Committee Chairman
Florida

In 1987 Tim Lesmeister began his career as a full-time freelance outdoor journalist. Lesmeister’s byline has appeared in all of the major magazines. He has been a guest on many television shows including The Today Show and Across America with Stephen Fry. Lesmeister is currently a columnist for Outdoor News and distributes a syndicated column which appears in many publications throughout the United States. He is a guest host for Outdoor News Radio which syndicates a one hour pre-recorded show which is distributed by the Minnesota News Network and covers much of the upper Midwest. Tim has hunted and fished around the globe, and has documented these trips with his camera and keyboard. Tim has taken his readers to France to hunt Huns, to Alaska to harvest halibut, and England to chase carp, tench, perch and trout, and across the U.S. to hunt, fish, and enjoy what the outdoors has to offer. If it’s worth doing in the outdoors, Tim will be there with a great story to tell upon his return.

Wendy Williamson

Awards Committee Vice Chair

Wendy Williamson

Awards Committee Vice Chair
Hayward, Wisconsin

Wendy is a fourth generation Hayward, Wisconsin native. After 10 years of guiding flyfishermen in Meeker, Colorado, she returned home in 1998. Wendy and her husband,Larry Mann, began guiding fly fishermen for muskies and smallmouth bass on the local rivers. They started the Hayward Fly Fishing Company fly shop in 2004. Wendy is vice president of the Namekagon River Partnership, a non profit organization that works to protect the St. Croix River watershed. She is an advisor for the St. Croix River Association and has served on the River Alliance board of directors. Wendy says her most important role, “is being a kick ass grandmother.”

Mike Dombeck

Awards Committee Member

Mike Dombeck

Awards Committee Member
Stevens Point, Wisconsin

Mike Dombeck grew up in the Hayward area and spent 11 summers working as a fishing guide. He received a PhD in fisheries biology doing research on natural reproduction and early life history of muskies. He worked for the Federal land management agencies for 25 years retiring as Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. He is the only person to have ever served as both the Director of the Bureau of Land Management and Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. Mike was an early leader in focusing land management practices on the protection of lakes and streams, improving water quality and fisheries. He has authored, co-authored, and edited over 200 popular and scholarly publications, including four books. He also served as UW System Fellow and Professor of Global Conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Rob Drieslein

Awards Committee Member

Rob Drieslein

Awards Committee Member
Minnesota

Rob Drieslein has been a Minnesota-based outdoors communications professional since 1992. In addition to his editorial and general manager duties at the Outdoor News Publications, Drieslein hosts the syndicated Outdoor News Radio, writes a conservation blog at outdoornews.com/Minnesota, and he has written for several national and regional magazines. Living in the Twin Cities, Drieslein and his wife of 23 years, Annette, raise three sons and a daughter, all of whom enjoy canoe camping trips in the Boundary Waters, hiking, recreational shooting and hunting, and fishing the region’s lakes, rivers, and streams.

Dr. Todd Larson

Awards Committee Member

Dr. Todd Larson

Awards Committee Member
Cincinnati, Ohio

Todd has been an avid collector of historical and vintage sportfishing tackle since his father introduced the hobby to him at age 13. Raised in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Dr. Larson has tirelessly scoured the countryside in search of old tackle boxes, rods and reels. If one were to visit a flea market, yard sale or estate sale of any consequence the ubiquitous Todd Larson would more than likely be on hand. As time wore one, Todd’s interests in historical things increased. Eventually he earned a degree in history from the University of Minnesota, ultimately his doctorate at the University of Illinois. Today, he’s a professor of history and Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Steve Moyer

Awards Committee Member

Steve Moyer

Awards Committee Member
Virginia

Steve serves as Trout Unlimited’s senior advocate on Capitol Hill and with the federal agencies. He works with TU’s local chapters and state councils to help them with their state and local advocacy efforts. Additionally, Moyer helps in the development and implementation of TU’s grassroots advocacy campaigns. Steve has worked for Trout Unlimited for 23 years. Moyer holds a B.S. in Wildlife Management from the University of Maine and an M.S. in Fisheries Science from Virginia Tech. TU’s mission is to conserve, protect, and restore the nation’s trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds. Trout Unlimited has 155,000 members in 350 chapters nationwide.

David Rainer

Awards Committee Member

David Rainer

Awards Committee Member
Silverhill, Alabama

2006-Present – Public Information Manager/Writer with the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Currently writes a weekly outdoors column that is posted online at www.outdooralabama.com and is distributed to media outlets in the Southeast for publication. Subject material covers the gamut of outdoors activities and conservation issues in Alabama, including the vast fishing and hunting opportunities available in the state. Feature writer for Outdoor Alabama magazine.

1992-2006 – Outdoors Editor at the Mobile (AL) Press-Register. Hired as the first full-time outdoors editor in the newspaper’s history.

Currently serves as President of the Southeastern Outdoors Press Association. Also serves on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council Outreach and Education Advisory Panel, Gulf States Marine Commission Outreach and Education Committee and the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame Awards Committee.

Today, he’s a professor of history and Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lisa Snuggs

Awards Committee Member

Lisa Snuggs

Awards Committee Member
North Carolina

Lisa Snuggs, an outdoors industry veteran from North Carolina, has been the executive director of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association (SEOPA) since 2000, and has been involved with the organization in some capacity most of her life. She represented PRADCO to SEOPA members from 1984 through 1995 and prior to that attended conferences with her family.

Snuggs manages the daily business aspects of SEOPA and its educational foundation, the Outdoor Journalist Education Foundation of America. She works with the groups’ board of directors, and is the editor/publisher of SEOPA News, the organization’s newsletter. SEOPA has more than 400 members from the fields of communication, tourism, corporate relations, public relations and state/federal agencies.

Snuggs grew up with a love of the outdoors, fishing in particular. She is a 2017 inductee into Garry Mason’s Legends of the Outdoor Hall of Fame and has recently released the 3rd edition of her popular “I’d Rather Go Fishin'” CD.

For more about SEOPA visit www.seopa.org . To learn more about Snuggs visit www.morrowmountainmusic.com.

Forrest Wood

Awards Committee Member

Forrest Wood

Awards Committee Member
Flippin, Arkansas

Internationally known as the “Father of the Modern Bass Boat,” Forrest L. Wood was born June 9, 1932 in the tiny town of Flippin, in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.

Forrest helped pioneer the sport of competitive bass fishing. Personally fishing the B.A.S.S. circuit, he did well, winning tournaments and the admiration of others while also qualifying for two of the prestigious BassMasters Classic championship events. Forrest went on to become the foremost innovator of bass boat design and safety.

Forrest has been a member of the Fresh Water fishing Hall of Fame’s prestigious Awrads Committee since 2007.

Emmett A. Brown

Awards Program Administrator

Emmett A. Brown Jr.

Awards Program Administrator
Hayward, Wisconsin

Upon selling his founding interest in a successful financial recruiting firm in Chicago, Illinois, Emmett and his wife Jean moved to Hayward, Wisconsin in order for Brown to assume the helm as Executive Director of the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in 2004. Mr. Brown’s duties include the overseeing of the Hall’s day to day museum operations, the administration of the Hall’s fresh water sportfishing world record keeping program and perhaps, most importantly, the administration of the Hall’s namesake international Hall of Fame program. Under Brown’s watchful eye (and with the unwavering help of the entire Awards Committee), this program has grown exponentially over the last 10 years. It truly has become an international program that is revered by the entire fresh water sportfishing community. Emmett is a lifelong fisherman who enjoys crappies in the spring, summer smallies and battling a muskellunge or two during the late summer and fall.

Awards Committee

Tim Lesmeister

Awards Committee Chairman

Wendy Williamson

Awards Committee Vice Chair

Mike Dombeck

Awards Committee Member

Rob Drieslein

Awards Committee Member

Dr. Todd Larson

Awards Committee Member

Steve Moyer

Awards Committee Member

David Rainer

Awards Committee Member

Lisa Snuggs

Awards Committee Member

Forrest Wood

Awards Committee Member

Emmett A. Brown

Awards Program Administrator

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