Trout

G    AB     R H    RBI    BB SO    AVG.   10     34     5     6     2     3       8     .176

With silent splendor, it slices serpentine through a sophisticated city and its surrounding suburbs. It offers its visitors a sylvan serenity, a place to escape the headlines and the deadlines of everyday living. It is the Wissahickon Creek, a waterway that meanders from central Montgomery County through Fairmount Park before it empties into the Schuylkill between Manayunk and East Falls. And it offers some prime places to tangle with trout. "When you're along the Wissahickon Creek, you can kind of blot the city out of your mind," said Sally Corl, the state Fish Commission waterways conservation officer for Philadelphia County.

It was 6:30 a.m., the first day of trout fishing season, and the countdown was on - only 90 minutes to go before the first fishing line hit the water. Along the banks of the Ridley Creek, the Chester Creek and the Darby Creek early Saturday, small clusters of anglers huddled together, talking about who would catch the first fish, and who would get the biggest. It was drizzling in the chilly pre-dawn darkness, but that didn't seem to bother the waiting groups. The anglers waiting by the Ridley Creek on Knowlton Road in Middletown Township included Danny Massi, a machinist from Chester, who said that for the last 14 years, he has started trout season at the same spot.

The Lower Merion-Narberth Watershed Association is looking for volunteers willing to roll up their sleeves and get wet. At noon Saturday, the association will begin planting about 7,000 brown- trout eggs in Mill Creek. The boxes that hold the eggs, Vibert boxes, will be placed in areas of the stream that are well-aerated from consistent water flows. Watershed members will work with volunteers to map out placement of the boxes, which hold 500 eggs apiece. Volunteers will cover the boxes with large stones and anchor them to form egg beds for the trout.

From the crowded creeks of Philadelphia and its suburbs to the seldom-fished headwater streams of northern Pennsylvania, anglers will fan out across the state Saturday for the opening of trout season. If you have never fished for trout before or are a veteran who wants to brush up on the basics, here are some facts you need to know: Anglers are allowed to keep eight trout daily on most waters during the regular season, which begins at 8 a.m. Saturday and runs through Sept.

Anglers will enjoy a bonus of extra stocked fish when the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission begins its second round of spring trout-stocking this week. Officials learned that they had 150,000 additional yearling trout on hand after taking inventory at the agency's 10 hatcheries, said Dan Tredinnick, a commission spokesman. The 8- and 9-inch fish exceed the minimum legal size limit (7 inches). Each year, the commission produces fish above its planned stocking target to ensure that it is able to replace trout that die in hatcheries before stocking commences.

Arms talks gave way to trout fishing yesterday morning, and when Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze climbed from the river, it was Yanks 3, Reds 0. Baker, an avid fisherman, stood chest-deep in the Snake River and caught and released three cutthroat trout in the space of five minutes. Shevardnadze stood on the bank and struggled with the rod lent to him by the National Park Service, trying to master the art of spin-casting. He awkwardly plunked several casts in the grass at his feet.

Calendars notwithstanding, spring for thousands of people in Southeastern Pennsylvania began at 8 a.m. on April 16. It was the opening day of trout season, and anglers of all ages descended on waterways throughout Bucks, Delaware, Montgomery, Chester and Philadelphia Counties. Pennsylvania issues more than 1 million fishing licenses a year, according to the state Fish Commission. But the number of anglers might be twice that, the commission said, because children younger than 16 don't need licenses and a number of Pennsylvanians don't bother to obtain the $12 one-year license, choosing to take their chances that they won't be caught.

The trout season is off the hook. Right before Pennsylvania anglers wade into the streams tomorrow, the state has decided the trout aren't too toxic to eat. Just last week, officials revealed that thousands of hatchery-raised trout already stocked into waterways - including some in Montgomery and Chester counties - were tainted with polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs. But after running more tests, the state said yesterday the trout are safe to put on the table - despite traces of PCBs in trout shipped to Philadelphia, Bucks, Delaware and other counties.

The start of trout season is an annual rite of spring that will involve more than a million Pennsylvanians tomorrow, beginning at 8 a.m. But trout fishing these days is not the kind of thing described in classical outdoors literature, and nothing like days long gone but not forgotten. Decreasing water quality and increasing pressure by anglers have created a put-and-take, hatchery-oriented fishery that some feel is a triumph of quantity over quality. Stocking fish has become necessary in most public waters because trout do not produce themselves in great number naturally in these surroundings.

Mike Trout is used to seeing his name in lights on major-league scoreboards. But the Los Angeles Angels outfielder knows it's going to be different seeing his name on a sign over the baseball field at his old high school in Millville, N.J. "I know it's going to be humbling," Trout said. "Driving by and seeing my name up there, it's going to be a good feeling. My dad [Jeff] played there. All my buddies played there. The coaches who brought me up are still there. " Trout, the 21-year-old who burst on the baseball scene as the American League rookie of the year in 2012, has been the driving force in an effort to refurbish the baseball field at Millville High.

Few public places remain in Millville, N.J., where Mike Trout goes unbothered. He still has Jim's Lunch, a popular luncheonette on East Main Street. He eats his six burgers - sauce, no cheese - at a back table without interruption. Rochelle Maul makes sure of it. Maul works the cash register. She's a de facto   security guard. Customers stare at Trout because that's what baseball fans tend to do when perhaps the finest baseball player in the world eats lunch right in the middle of town.

Why were those men running, not walking, with buckets of hatchery-bred trout before dumping them into Brandywine Creek? "There's not much water in the buckets," Jim Wolownik, 75, of Valley Township, Chester County, explained. The trout "run out of oxygen. If you don't get them into the stream fast, they'll die. " Wolownik was part of a brigade of volunteers - their 11 cars and trucks forming a convoy over winding country roads - that by 1 p.m. Tuesday had reached Hatfield House in Hibernia County Park after an hour's serpentine journey off Route 340 near Coatesville.

Millville High School's baseball field will soon be named after its most famous former player: 2009 graduate and 2012 American League rookie of the year Mike Trout. Millville baseball coach Roy Hallenbeck said Wednesday that the Millville Board of Education on Monday night approved a sponsorship deal that will include a $10,000 donation to the school for improvements to the field in conjunction with naming the facility after Trout. Hallenbeck said that officials hope to hold a naming ceremony later this spring but that the date and other details still were being finalized.

Millville High School's baseball field will soon be named after its most famous former player: 2009 graduate and 2012 American League Rookie of the Year Mike Trout. Millville baseball coach Roy Hallenbeck said Wednesday that the Millville Board of Education on Monday night approved a sponsorship deal that will include a $10,000 donation to the school for improvements to the field in conjunction with naming the facility after Trout. Hallenbeck said that officials hope to hold a naming ceremony later this spring but that the date and other details still were being finalized.

Robert Gates Trout, 90, a pioneer in open-heart surgery and the chief of thoracic surgery at Presbyterian Hospital for 25 years ending in 1987, died Monday, March 4, at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr of complications from a stroke. Dr. Trout was headed for a career as a pediatrician in the 1950s when he rotated into the then-nascent field of open-heart surgery during a medical internship. He was intrigued and, along with two other doctors, went on to found a thoracic surgery practice at 1930 Chestnut St. that later moved to Presbyterian.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Los Angeles Angels slugger Mike Trout figures that if he continues to produce the way he did during his historic rookie season, he will be in line for a handsome raise soon enough. The Angels renewed the contract of the American League rookie of the year for $510,000 on Saturday, just $20,000 above the major-league minimum, prompting an angry response from Trout's agent. While Craig Landis said the renewal fell "well short of a 'fair' contract," Trout took the high road before a morning workout Sunday at the Angels' spring-training complex.

Last season, Angels outfielder Mike Trout hit .326 with 30 homers and 83 RBIs, led the majors with 129 runs and 49 steals, was named the American League rookie of the year, and finished second in the AL MVP voting, bested only by Detroit's Miguel Cabrera (you know, the guy with baseball's first triple crown since 1967). What's that worth to Los Angeles? A cool $27,500. (Gee, imagine the extra zero they might have given him for a triple crown!) The Halos, who paid Trout $482,500 in 2012, renewed the Millville Marvel's contract for $510,000 on Saturday.

Los Angeles Angels centerfielder Mike Trout, the 2012 American League rookie of the year and runner-up to Miguel Cabrera in the MVP race, weighed a reported 241 pounds upon arrival at spring training - about 10 to 15 pounds heavier than last season. According to a report on ESPN.com, the increased bulk has earned the star from Millville, N.J., some jibes on Twitter and sparked some concern among fantasy owners that his speed game might suffer as a result. It has also been a topic of discussion among bloggers and sports talk radio callers in Southern California.

Hours before Mike Trout singled in his first at-bat this spring, the Los Angeles Angels outfielder was a big hit with some children. Trout, a native of Millville, N.J., and teammates David Carpenter, Michael Kohn, and Travis Witherspoon took $5,000 worth of school supplies and toys Monday morning to Children First Academy, a Tempe, Ariz., charter school for underprivileged and homeless children. "After it was all over the kids ran up and gave us a big hug," the 20-year-old Trout said.