It's funny how people drift in and out of our lives sometimes.
That's also true with hunting and fishing partners. I can think of a half-dozen people with whom I shared numerous trips afield, only to gradually lose contact.
Some of them live within walking distance.
That is nobody's fault, and it didn't happen because of disputes or disagreements; it just happened.
For whatever reason, it works that way sometimes.
I thought about that the other day when I received an email from a reader who'd seen my story about Chuck Lindner, the Warroad, Minn., man who recently completed the 350-mile portion of the Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska on a fat bike.
"I don't know if you remember me ..." the email began.
I did remember, of course, and we spent the next couple of days trading emails, swapping fish photos and catching up on old times.
I hadn't thought about him in years.
The first time we fished together was Minnesota walleye opener 1999 on Lake of the Woods. In typical Minnesota walleye opener fashion, the weather went from warm and sunny earlier in the week to windy, cold and rainy by opening day.
Perfect.
The plan that day was to deviate and fish northern pike instead of walleyes because that was my fishing partner's passion. All the better because Lake of the Woods is his home water.
I woke up about 4:30 opening day morning to the sound of howling wind and rain pelting the windows. I can pretty much guarantee that kind of weather today would have me bagging the trip.
Back then, it was just a minor inconvenience.
We met up at a restaurant in Baudette, Minn., about 7 a.m. and spent the first couple of hours drinking coffee and doing our best to avoid the elements that raged outside.
The big lake would be in an ugly mood.
Finally, though, lack of common sense won out, and we headed for the boat ramp at Wheeler's Point north of Baudette near the mouth of the Rainy River. The water temperature had plummeted, but my fishing partner managed to catch a 37-inch pike fairly early in the day.
There was a whole lot of nothing for the next several hours, even after we switched to walleyes.
Walleye opener also coincided with the last day of sturgeon season, and so we decided to switch gears yet again and drop anchor in Four-Mile Bay. The sturgeon were elusive, but the walleyes turned on about the time the skies cleared and the wind subsided.
A few weeks later, we hooked up for another pike excursion and both landed 40-inch or better fish on a day that was much friendlier than the blustery walleye opener.
We fished again a year or two later during the spring walleye run on the Rainy River. I don't remember the year, but I remember the walleyes cooperating.
And that was it.
Until the email I received last Sunday.
He still lives in Baudette and shared photos of a recent day he'd spent with his daughter ice fishing the Ontario side of Lake of the Woods. He also shared photos of walleyes, pike, lake trout and smallmouth bass from other recent excursions.
Not to be outdone, I shared some photos of my own.
If all goes according to plan, the divergent paths we've taken for more than 15 years will cross again sometime in the next few months.
If the emails and stories we swapped are any indication, that will be an absolute blast.
