Andy’s Way
by Jim Lavrakas

My friend Andy Sorensen passed away in March 2008 . We met each other about 4 years before that on Ship Creek and slowly became friends over the many 6 A.M. meetings to fish on the creek together. He was only 48 years old when he died, a robust person, who had a hidden cardiac weakness that killed him way too early.

But he had a big heart, living his life to the fullest, and loving his wife Rebecca and sons Erik and Jake as much as a man could love his family. It was shocking to have him go so soon.
My friend was a strong Christian who lived his beliefs as he walked through his life. He didn’t “talk his walk”, he just did it.

If Andy saw someone fishing early, or bending some other fishing law, he would gently let them know they were making a mistake and leave it there. He always gave people the benefit of the doubt. And he approached them in a way that was meant not to intimidate. He just wanted them to have the information to do the right thing. What they did with the information was up to them.

Many times he would stop to help a newbie who clearly needed help. Fish would be running thick up the creek, and he would just stop and talk to the person, offer advice if they asked. He helped land more fish than he caught.

The season before he died he handed out at least 50 hand-tied salmon flies to friends and strangers on the creek. They were his own invention. The yarn on the fly looped around like a section of rug. Andy took to calling them “The Shag Rug”, and would proudly ask folks if they wanted to try his custom fly, “The Shag Rug”. Then he would laugh that goofy cackle of his with delight.

He was there when I caught my derby winner in 2004 and helped the 2007 Women’s winner, Meghan Kincaid, when she hooked into a 33.6 pounder. He was a regular “Denizen of Ship Creek”, but unlike the negative connotation that word gives, he genuinely liked to watch people enjoy their experience here.

So Andy’s friends on the creek decided to honor him by starting the Andy Sorensen Sportsmanship Award during the Downtown Soup Kitchen’s Slam’n Salm’n Derby. He, like others, often seemed to be cursed with the “Derby Jinx”: he couldn’t catch a fish while the derby was running. But that didn’t stop him from helping people catch their own derby winners.

Thanks Andy.

Criteria for the Andy Sorensen Sportsmanship Award: an angler who shows “practice of ethical fishing or helpful, selfless conduct towards fellow anglers”. During the derby, the person who most exemplifies Andy’s friendly, helpful spirit will win a take-home trophy, have their name engraved and mounted on the perpetual trophy, and receive $500 that comes with the award. $250 is donated by the Alaska Fly Fishers Club, of which Andy was a member, and $250 from Andy’s friends on the creek.

To nominate a derby fisherman for the award other fishermen can fill out a form at the Derby Headquarters.


The 2008 winner was Anchorage resident and Ship Creek diehard Kirby Shurtz, who won for chasing down a runaway fishing pole (with a king salmon hooked to it) that was lost when it was jerked off the bank and the owner (a senior citizen) couldn’t grab it in time. Kirby retrieved the pole and the owner landed that fish!