Another Day on the Water, Waves and Fresh Fish for Dinner

Alan stopped by after pickelball and you could tell by his grin that he had a fish story to tell. He had taken his grandson out and they had gotten into fish so big that they lost all of them, They had went out nineteen miles to a reef and had then saw a group of boats about a mile away. Going over there they watched a boat land a thirty pound grouper and when they lowered their lines they were soon on a fish themselves.
Now they never did land any of the big fish they had on but they had found a spot and when he invited me and another friend, Tim, we both jumped at the chance to catch some black grouper. Two days later we had a live well full of fresh bait, pinfish and mullet caught with our cast net.
Now it all depended on the size of the seas and sadly we soon found ourselves in five footers. It was obvious that it was simply unsafe for us to continue so we headed to a pass with protected water and tried our usual drifting techniques.

As the day wore on we caught and released some small black sea bass and the usual grunts. Suddenly we saw pelicans and birds diving on a spot and as we neared it we could see fish chasing bait, Greenbacks were being driven into the air by a school of small bluefish and into the beaks of the feeding birds. Just a soon as we arrived the frenzy stopped and of course we had no bites.
Shortly after a new frenzy took place so we decided to continue fishing the pass. Drift after drift followed and finally Tim caught a nice keeper Atlantic sharpnose shark, As soon as it was landed Alan set his circle hook on a large bonnethead shark and we actually had fish in the live well.
Feeling left out we tried another drift and it was my turn as I felt a weight on my cut mullet, set the hook and actually landed a really nice southern flounder. On the same pass Tim landed a nice keeper black sea bass and surprise surprise we all started to discuss our favorite ways of cooking fish!
We didn't add any more fish to the live well but it didn't matter. Mother nature had thrown us a loop with big waves but when you can't fish for one species then go after another. The day turned out to be a five species day with good friends, good stories, and fish for the table. Clear skies