Breathtaking scenery in the nation’s last great overflow swamp stood out as vibrant as ever when my brother, Keith Shoopman, and his son, Corey Shoopman, visited a few weeks ago to fish, bond and eat local cuisine like kings, like they have done every two years since 2016.

The similarities to past years together ended there. To a man, our respective heart and soul were heavy and hurting because He wanted Bill Shoopman of Archie, Mo., with him Oct. 7 after succumbing to a 2-month, 7-day old one-sided battle against pancreatic cancer.

Bill, diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer the first week of August, died peacefully late that night with his wife of 47 years at his side, holding his hand. Strong and sharp mentally to the end, our brother was weak physically after disease increasingly wracked his body. He was 67.

As Keith, of Warsaw, Mo., Corey, of Belton, Mo., and I fished, bonded and dined on June’s great home-cooked meals for five nights and four straight days, our thoughts were on Bill. A great part of our world is missing as it is for his loving and caring wife, Jan, two grown daughters, Adrienne and Margo, our two sisters, Patti and Barbara, relatives on both sides of the family and friends. It was a hard, hard August, September and October.

My youngest brother and nephew still made the trip, planned earlier this year. I appreciate that.

“The fishing was tough but it was very enjoyable to get out on the water with my brother and his son, helping relieve some of the pain and sorrow of losing our beloved brother,” Keith wrote in a text several days after the trip, which both younger brothers took together many times since I moved here in ’76. “Brother Bill loved our trips to Cajun Country … from the typically excellent bass, redfish and speckled trout fishing to the excellent cuisine prepared by June. We really enjoyed the camaraderie and the scenery of the lake and the Basin.”

As close as the five siblings are, the brothers got even closer during those all-day outings going from Marsh Field Landing, Myette Point Landing, Bayou Benoit Landing and Quintana Canal Boat Landing. Bill absolutely loved tossing a plastic worm, spinnerbait or his notorious buzz baits around cypress trees and really got into the saltwater fishing scene out of Cypremort Point, at Calcasieu Lake and, even, Venice. The Shoopman brothers tapped speckled trout in memorable trips to near-offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico with Huey Oliver in July 2008, speckled trout in Vermilion Bay several years later with the late Al “Mayor Al” Broussard and Calcasieu Lake with well-known charter boat captain Jeff Poe.

My oldest little brother also sampled the bassin at two major lakes within a comfortable drive from here – Toledo Bend and Lake Sam Rayburn.

Bill started building spinnerbaits and buzz baits for family and friends in 1983, a hobby countless bass wish he wouldn’t have taken up. The Super Bait Buzz Bait’s reputation spread fast in south central Louisiana, thanks to its track record in tournaments for myself and my youngest son, Jacob Shoopman of Lafayette, formerly of New Iberia.

He really enjoyed pouring the mold and making those spinnerbaits and buzz baits. About twice a year he’d ship a fresh batch of killer buzz baits here to us, usually attaching a witty note, and we’ve shared them with local bass anglers.

Bill was a very good bass fisherman who appreciated getting out, enjoying the environment and fooling the fish. He was one of the best with a plastic worm but he could catch consistently on crank baits, topwaters, spinnerbaits and his buzz baits, proving it in Missouri, Kansas, Texas and Louisiana.

Let me tell you more about Bill. He was a winner in life, in love, in fatherhood. His biggest victory was marrying the love of his life, Janelle Verburgt, Oct. 1, 1977, in Peculiar, Mo. Big wins followed with the birth of two beautiful daughters, Adrienne Shoopman Green and Margo Shoopman Lang, who were pillars of strength during the services for their dad, the funeral Oct. 12 in Harrisonville, Mo., and burial Oct. 13 in Eugene, Mo.

Bill was a U.S. Postal Service employee 38 years, working as a postal clerk, letter carrier, postmaster and other positions before retiring as a bulk mail entry technician in 2012. Several years after retiring, Bill moved from West 75th Street in KCMO (within easy walking distance of the home all of us grew up in at 78th and Summit) to Archie. His community spirit showed while he enjoyed serving on the Cass County Board of Services and as a member of Archie’s Parks and Recreation Board. He also served as a board member on the Here’s Waldo Neighborhood Association and 1st Credit Union, plus the Kansas City Board of Elections (Election Day judge and judge supervisor).

In his first-ever venture into politics earlier this year, Bill campaigned successfully and was oh-so proud to be elected in April as an Alderman in Archie. I’m pretty sure voters in his district saw a classy, honest man with their best interests in mind. It hurt me so much when he gave up his alderman’s seat within days of the diagnosis, knowing what he faced, making that decision.

We didn’t always fish on his visits. Bill took three trips here over the last five years with Keith and our awesome, loving sisters, Patti Shoopman Rendina of Overland Park, Kansas, and Barbara Shoopman Henry of Leavenworth, Kansas. They crammed into a rental vehicle each time to surprise me at my retirement reception at The Daily Iberian in January 2019, again on my 70th birthday in January 2023 and once more this May to watch me receive the Louisiana Wildlife Federation’s 2024 Conservation Communicator of the Year Award.

Keith, like all of us a Kansas City native, fished with Bill several times this summer on waterbodies in central and western Missouri and eastern Kansas. During August, as our brother’s health and stamina failed him, Keith helped with chores around Bill’s home in Archie, including splitting wood for the fireplace.

In August, we set the date for Keith and Corey’s visit. Corey, a network technician for T-Mobile, said the visit meant so much to him despite the circumstances.

“I’m glad my dad and I had this opportunity to drive down to Cajun Country and visit family. They (June Bug and I) were just in KC (Missouri),” he wrote in a text several days after he returned to Belton, Mo., “but the mood was different. Uncle Bill passed, and I carried the casket for his burial.

“Back in New Iberia, we were excited for adventure, and to be fishing together again. I still think of those days spent fishing with my late uncle, and grandpa. I’ll always cherish the memories made with family in the great outdoors.”

The fishing was nothing to write home about, believe me, as we went once to Lake Fausse Pointe, once to Chicot Lake and twice to the Atchafalaya Basin.

“Yes, the fishing was not too great but I fish an extremely stingy home lake,” Keith said about Truman Lake, created by the Osage River where our maternal grandfather, Louis Bliss, and his son, Vic Bliss, built the cabin we loved on a bluff overlooking the river soon after Uncle Vic returned from World War II. “Our guide did everything he could to get the boys from the north on fish but things just weren’t right. It happens.”

Keith, who retired as an auto parts counterman after 44 years at Cable-Dahmer Cadillac (and its predecessor) in 2023, and Corey still rave about the home-cookin’, those meals my wife cooked after each working day at The Daily Iberian.

“And, of course, we can’t forget about the wonderful meals prepared by June,” Keith said, listing the chicken and sausage gumbo, chicken and sausage jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, red beans and rice and white beans and rice, plus taste bud-tantalizing local sides.

There was only one worldly treasure missing.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.