17" Flounder (Personal Best) @ Sleepy Hollow

First time in Sleepy Hollow! Needed a break from the St Johns river so decided to switch it up and try a new spot. A cloudy late morning with some north winds made it a little challenging. Spent a few minutes scouting the area first, noticed the park is open from 7:30am-5:30pm. When I arrived around 10:15am, there were a couple of guys walking out on the dirt path on the right side, so I took the left side. First setup was the white gulp shrimp on a 1/4oz chartreuse jighead (tried looking for 1/8th chartreuse jigheads but Walmart didn't have any).
Within the first 30 minutes I caught a 17" flounder! This is my first flounder besides the one I snagged on the belly from the surf at CNS last year. I was jacked up on Mountain Dew and ready for some more! lol Unfortunately I didn't catch anymore flounder but I did a few short strikes. I also got snagged a couple times and lost 2 jigheads.
So I moved to another spot and tried some gulp swimming mullet in chartreuse. Again, several bites but no hookups. Finially caught a huge pinfish on the swimming mullet. It chewed the tail right off! Also out in the water I could see something busting the baitfish but it was too far out to cast.

Location: Sleepy Hollow, New Smyrna
Tackle: 1/4th oz jighead - 20lb test leader

Species: Flounder
Size: 17"
Bait: 3" white Gulp! Shrimp





I came across this Sleepy Hollow area when I started hearing reports on another website. There's a guy who fishes there often and almost always catches flounder/blues/trout. He has the most luck with white gulp shrimp too. So I asked him for some pointers since I was unfamiliar with the area. This is what he replied...

Sleepy Hollow is huge! Where the old bridge was is a good place but has a bunch of snags/rocks right next to the bulkheads. You can fish on either side. If you go in the south side - that's the county park - the gate opens at 7:30am. On either end of the parking lot there is a dirt path out the river. The paths connect. It's a long walk but plenty of fishing places out there. You can also fish just outside the entrance to the park - you'll see a path to the beach. A lot of kayakers launch there. Another spot is either side of US1 at the culvert. You will need boots on either side - the mud is awful! Several spots to fish there. They also catch a lot of sheephead from the culvert. The only bad part about the culvert is the cars and trucks whizzing by right on your back! There's a couple more small spots south of the park entrance on US1. There's another large spot north of the old bridge road. One of the many channels flow through there. Good luck!

A little trivia. Before US1 was four laned from Daytona Beach to NSB in the early 60s, Sleepy Hollow was a large restuarant. US1 went right by the place. The old bridge was wooden back then. When the road was four laned, DOT straightened the curve out and left Sleepy Hollow behind.