I am fishing from a boardwalk over a large pool so deep the water looks black, using a ball
of worms on a hook for bait. I drag it through the water but get no bites. The boardwalk becomes
just a board on which I float over to the shore of the pool, but as I approach the shallow water
the board becomes unstable and I fall off. I am able to climb up out of the water and resume
fishing in the pool from cobbly stream flowing into it. I am feeling nervous that the game warden
might catch me fishing because I do not have a license so I look upstream and downstream below
the pool but do not see anyone.
Out on the surface of the pool I see three long lean rainbow trout, silver and pink. The largest is
about two feet long and feels slightly threatening. The trout do not go after my hook but instead
swim over to the bank on the far side of the channel from me and rest there side-by-side. My hook
with the balled-up worm on it is in front of the largest of the trout and before I can react, the
trout takes the hook into its mouth but does not swallow it. I am ambivalent about catching the
trout but I don't do anything and suddenly the trout swallows my hook. Now I am really worried
about getting caught by the game warden so I cut the line to release the fish before it reacts to
the hook.
I am still standing out in the middle of the river when the trout swims over to the edge of the pool
in front of me. Suddenly it climbs out of the water and becomes a large brown blunt-nosed alligator.
It walks up until it is directly facing me, just a few feet away, and glares at me for a few moments.
I am afraid that it might attack but it turns and walks away as if it can't be bothered with me. I
walk back to the other side of the river where a man in a light brown shirt or suit is sitting by the bank.
As I walked up to him he asks, "That was an alligator, wasn't it?".
"Yes, I think so", I reply.