Trout

When they're first born, they're scared of their mom and dad. No sooner had those words left Jim Solomon's mouth than the horrified cries of 35 third-graders crescendoed in unison: "Whaaaat?" "It's because they might eat them," he explained. Parents gobbling up their young was all but unthinkable to 8- and 9-year-olds that February morning. But Solomon, of the Santa Monica Wilderness Fly Fishers, spoke their language.

Forecast for the April 28 jamboree otherwise known as the Eastern Sierra general trout season opener: Bishop, 84 degrees and sunny; Mammoth Lakes, 62 and partly cloudy; June Lake, 47 and mostly sunny; Bridgeport, 63 and partly cloudy. Reassuring? Perhaps. But the wise angler will pack heavy clothing and carry chains, as blizzards can materialize unexpectedly in this region. However, even the wise angler can leave the auger home this time.

Trout are pretty picky characters. They like their water vodka-clear and their insects served just so. The good news: You can find the fish from the Sierra to Siberia. Here are the best airfares to some of the world's best trout spots: *--* ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND LAX $709 British *--* *--* ANCHORAGE LAX $415 Delta, United, US Airways SNA 545 Alaska, Delta, US Airways BUR 445 United, US Airways LGB 415 Alaska, Delta, US Airways ONT 473 United, US Airways *--* *--* BOZEMAN, MONT.

Today the big city becomes a distant place and a distant memory. Thousands of anglers are heading north along U.S. 395, like salmon up a river, to attend Saturday's opening of the Eastern Sierra trout-fishing season. They'll gaze to the right, toward the Owens River, and to the left, toward mountain streams, imaginations running freely, wondering where the big ones are hiding.

This column is about rainbow trout and yellow-legged frogs. It's about one of state government's most important functions: stocking lakes and streams with catchable fish for 2.1 million licensed anglers, plus their kids, who don't need a license if they're under 16. This has nothing to do with Sacramento spending more than it's taking in. Fishing licenses -- now up to $37 per year -- bring in much more money than the state puts out for fish planting.

The state Division of Wildlife is stocking hundreds of high mountain lakes with fingerling trout dropped from hoppers mounted in Cessna 185 aircraft, aquatic biologist Sherman Hebein said in Aspen. The planes, traveling about 85 mph, get within 125 feet of the lake surface before releasing the fish so they don't dry out before they hit the water.

A 20-year government effort to restore the population of an endangered native trout has made little progress because biologists have been stocking waterways with the wrong fish, a three-year study by University of Colorado researchers has found. Advances in genetic testing helped biologist discover the error, but they said there is still hope for restoring the greenback cutthroat trout.

Papa salmon plus mama salmon equals. . . baby trout? Japanese scientists put a new spin on surrogate parenting as they engineered one fish species to produce another, in a quest to preserve endangered fish. Next month, Idaho scientists will try to produce sockeye salmon, highly endangered in that state, using more plentiful trout as surrogate parents.

It's a treacherous, serpentine stretch of Topanga Canyon Boulevard dubbed the Narrows, and it's the bane of cyclists and runners alike. Bounded by a sandstone bluff on one side and a sheer drop into the Topanga Canyon Creek on the other, the Narrows is infamous for washouts, landslides and fallen rocks that frequently paralyze long lines of commuters traveling between the Valley and the Westside.

About 100,000 young steelhead trout have been found dead at a fish-breeding facility, setting back efforts to restore the threatened species. Hatchery workers discovered about 100 adult and 100,000 yearlings floating Friday in the Coyote Valley Dam fish imprinting facility at Lake Mendocino, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.