After fishing my way into Grevemberg several weeks ago on a balmy fall weekday in the Atchafalaya Basin, I couldn’t wait to see the lake with the natural beauty that takes your breath away.

The trolling motor was down and pulling the 17 1/2-foot aluminum boat as hard as it could against the current, which was swift because the nation’s last great overflow swamp was on its way down for good this year. Around the last stand of trees at the entrance to the lake, I looked out and up in Grevemberg for the first time in 2008.

That cypress-tree lined lake was such a rewarding sight. But even I wasn’t prepared for the coup de grace — a bald eagle soared, wings outspread, several hundred feet above the water to my left and about half-a-mile in front of the boat. When people say the symbol of this great nation is regal and majestic, they aren’t kidding.

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That, my friends, was one of the many highlights of this year.

This week, on the 33rd anniversary of my first-ever visit to the Teche Area, which became my home less than two months later, that is what I am thankful for, the opportunity to see such a wonderful sight in the heart of the Sportsman’s Paradise. It’s the chance to hunt and fish and sightsee and hike all over the woods and waterways that surround New Iberia.

There are acres and acres of marshes and saltwater bays, and hardwood swamps, freshwater lakes and bayous, all of which beckon hundreds of some of the most avid fishermen and hunters in the country to come and enjoy the outdoors. They do, too, with generations of them following each other out into Mother Nature’s colorful playgrounds.

We have magnificent state parks and Wildlife Management Areas within easy driving distance of the villages, towns and cities that make up the area.

I’ve enjoyed taking my family — parents, brothers, sisters, wife, sons and other relatives — and friends to many of those places over the past three decades.

They quickly discover and agree with me that what makes this area so great is more than the beau coup places we get to enjoy recreation in the great outdoors. It’s the people, plain and simple.

So many of them have had a positive influence on this Missouri native who will celebrate his 56th birthday in January. One of the most recent is Huey Olivier, the New Iberian who has a camp at Cypremort Point and didn’t hesitate this summer to bring my two vacationing brothers, my youngest son and myself on a near-offshore speckled trout fishing trip that we will never forget.

I’ll never forget the people who brought me along for the ride; who taught me how to fish for the popular freshwater and saltwater species around here from the month of my arrival to now. It’s a learning experience every time out with some of the best fishermen in South Louisiana.

Luckily, some of those tips and skills have been passed on to my wife and sons who can tap the bream, sac-a-lait, bass, speckled trout, redfish, etc., as good as or better than yours truly on any given day.

There also are so many people who care about the environment, conservation and the future of this niche in the Sportsman’s Paradise. That is evident in the membership of local chapters of Ducks Unlimited, Louisiana Wildlife Federation and Coastal Conservation Association-Louisiana.

The places and people here have made an everlasting good impression on me.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.