Gator

[FLAG!]

Okay, I'm not crazy and like to believe I'm not stupid. However, I've thought long and hard about what it was I saw in the water on Saturday near Dow island. While fishing with a partner we both commented on how much a stick floating in the water looked like an alligator. It was drifting motionless. It had a long-ish body portion just poking above the water and the perfect shape of the eyes and snout, just the way a gator floats in the water. We even joked about it being a gator. The stick was roughly 150 feet away from us. But after about 5 minutes the stick quickly went under, head first with a nice swirl in the water behind it. I thought it could have been an otter or a beaver, but the back was too rough and bumpy to be either and I have never seen a beaver rest motionless in the water, and I don't believe I've ever seen otters in the lake. I've seen them at umbagog but not winni.

So I am not convinced that what I saw was not an alligator. It is possible that someone released a pet alligator. The question is, how long would one survive in the lake. What temperatures could an alligator tolerate?

Anyone care to shed light on this?


by the way, I would estimate the length to be 6 to 7 feet