Opening Day Grouper Season East Coast

We scouted a few days before the opening this year and despite gorgeous weather the visibility was terrible and we didn’t see that much in the way of fish. For the first time in as long as I can remember we shot… one fish! A .5 lb Yellowtail snapper. Weak. I had filled up my new 155qt Yeti cooler with Ice in anticipation of a typical day on our boat but ended up using none of it so we closed the cooler and left it on the boat and three days later it was ready for opening day.
We made the decision to drive up to North Florida and put in early Saturday morning and headed out into 3-5′ seas.
First spot I freedove in 75′ and while dark the visibility was 20′ horizontal. My Cousin Aaron and I dove one up and one down for the first 45 minutes passing up 20lb Groupers and laughing in the face of 20 lb Red Snappers that knew they were safe until Fisheries Management gets their heads out of their asses.
On one dive I saw a solid Gag in the 30 lb Range and hunted around in the wreck with a light on successive dives but could never get the head shot I wanted.
Meanwhile in the boat the elders were restless and before long we were out of the water and headed straight into the seas another 15 miles in search of greener pastures….
Which turned in to Browner Water.
Next spot had 3′ visibility and lots of fish but with the bad visibility it was difficult to distinguish a 15 from a 30 lb’er and my cousin Greg and my Dad ended up with two in that size range. BAckdiving the spot to look for a lost stringer I tanked up and found another three fish in the 12-20lb range. In the poor vis I had to use a bright light and was inside the wreck at 85′ and down one level. When I found the first Gag I took a look at my escapes, shot the fish. Went outside of the wreck and tied the line off, went back in and killed the fish, then unclipped the shooting line and removed the entire rig. I’m not a big fan of insertions on big wrecks especially with all the braided line that is so commonly used for fishing wrapped up all around them nowadays. I have been caught a few times freediving and it is down right terrifying to look back and not be able to see what it is that has you caught and be 70′ down and slashing with your knife at an invisible foe.
The weather was picking up and the vis was less than desirable so we continued in to some shallower bottom and my 50 year old Cousin Greg commenced to teaching us all a lesson about diving. At the end of it all he claimed 3 Cobia for the boat and worked harder then anyone to get us on the fish. With his and Mr. Pat coaching all day i think I was on overload of good advice and resigned to let the previous generation whip up on the fish.End of the day had a limit of Grouper and Three nice Cobia, six Flounder and 6 very tired crew from rolling around all day in the rough water.