Personal Best 19.75" FLOUNDER @ Sleepy Hollow 10/18

Started out at 7:00am leaving the house with my son. Weather was cool outside, low 60's. Sunrise was at 7:30am so it would warm up pretty quick. Arrived at New Smyrna around 8:00am and first stop is the new ramp, Swoope ramp. We started at the little cove near the dumpster but no luck. Moved down to the actual boat ramp and no luck again. Wanted to checkout Sleepy Hollow so that's where we headed next. Realized we were pretty much the only ones there, very surprising for a Saturday. Loaded the cart and walked down to spot #1. After a few casts I feel the flounder tap and hook into a nice one. Worked it on the shore and saw it was a big one but I didn't realize how big until I measured it. It taped at 19.75" long! The one I've been waiting on for some time now, I always wanted a 20-incher doormat. This one destroyed my previous record of 17" which was actually caught at the same place, Sleepy Hollow. Caught him on a pearl white Gulp swimming mullet with 1/4oz Mission Fishin' chartreuse jighead.



Couldn't get another hit after that so moved to spot #2. While there we came across a sea turtle that was swimming really close to shore.



Didn't get anymore hits at Sleepy Hollow so we took a lunch break at McDonalds. After lunch we went back to the new ramp. Tried fishing the cove again but no luck. Put the fishing poles away and decided to just throw the castnet and see what we can find for our home aquarium. With a couple throws of the castnet we found a few perfect specimens. Collected a juvenile gray snapper and juvenile crevalle jack, along with several tiny 1/4" hermit crabs. Took me awhile to ID the baby fish when I got home. Had a great day on the water! My dad took this photo of my son and I sporting our catch of the day.

Sleepy Hollow Flattie - Monday 4/29

My day off was today so I headed out to Sleepy Hollow after I dropped off my son at school. Parked and walked out to the bank around 10am. First spot was the rightside point, no hits. Second spot I moved to the leftside point, saw some mullet so I decided to hang around. Tried the white Gulp Mantis Shrimp with no luck. Switched to the white Gulp Swimming Mullet and caught a nice 15" flounder. Next cast I see something about 16-18" long attack my bait, could've been a small blue? I don't know because it spit the hook and left. Moved to the culvert area and caught a big crab. That was it for the morning. One flounder in the bucket is still a good day fishing to me!

Flat Bridge / Sleepy Hollow / NSB Report

Been fishing with artificials lately trying to master the art of jigging. The past few Saturdays I've had off work as well, so I've been taking my son Cody out early in the morning and fishing at first light. My favorite soft plastics are the DOA paddletails, gulp swimming mullet and gulp shrimp. We normally start at the flat bridge and then work our way to sleepy hollow, and then finially New Smyrna area. I really haven't caught much to talk about besides some small trout and a few blues. I did catch my first inshore Barracuda near the culvert side of sleepy hollow. It was a small one but still a first species for me.



The trout fishing has been hot as of late even if they are all undersized. I can usually find them chasing bait at night near bridge and pier lights. They seem to strike just about anything you put in front of them too. Small blues are in the mix as well.

However the flounder bite has slowed tremendously in the river. My friend Kyle caught a couple in New Smyrna, but reports from the famous "flattie" bridge in Port Orange have little to show. Next fishing trip I'm going to try a little different approach and go with a tandem rig like I do with the St Johns shad run. I'm also going to jig a live finger mullet pinned to the bottom. I've been reading up on successful flounder fishing and here's a few notes that came out of my research..

Use live bait, finger mullet in the 4-5 inch range. Mud minnows also work.
Don't use such a long leader between the swivel and hook. 12 inches will help keep the bait down and not allow it to get too high in the water column.
Don't just cast into one area as flounder are ambush predaters. fan cast and slowly bring the line in. pick it up a little and let it drop this way your covering ground.
Flounder like to be in the sand, but like to have some structure next to them.
Use smaller hooks- 1/0, 2/0 maybe even a 3/0. Kahle hooks are preferred.

Windy Presidents Day @ Sleepy Hollow

Presidents Day was this Monday and my son was out of school. So with his day off I took him to New Smyrna to show him my new favorite fishing spot in Sleepy Hollow. The skies were partly cloudy, with a high in the upper 60's. The North winds were pretty strong around 14-15mph though. We arrived around 10:30am and setup on the far leftside point where I caught my last flounder. The tide was just starting to go out so the water levels were still high. But the winds were a problem today, it was blowing in our face the whole time as we're facing the north. I also brought my castnet which was useless since there were no baitfish, even if there were baitfish it would be difficult to see them in the turned up water.

So instead of jigging for flounder and instead of fishing with live bait, I focused on fishing with dead shrimp on a pompano rig. I know there's no pompano in this river but it's a good rig for bottom fishing. The only thing biting today were the pinfish, those pesky bait stealers. Cody and I managed to catch 1 pinfish each. After we were done fishing I took Cody down to my favorite baitshop, 38 Live Bait in New Smyrna. I asked if they had any live fiddler crabs and they sure did, they had ALOT! I bought a dozen for only $1.30 and gave them to Cody. He wanted to keep them as pets LOL. I would much rather fish for sheepshead with them but Cody really liked them so I said okay, you can keep them. After the baitshop we stopped by the North Causeway to look around. There were two guys out there fishing with live fiddlers and they were catching a few sheepshead. In the few minutes we visited, one guy actually caught a small one that was released. So the sheepshead bite is definitly on right now, especially around the bridges. The lady at 38 Live Bait even said there have been fishermen coming in and out asking for fiddlers, and that they are catching them pretty consistantly right now. I hear sheepshead are difficult to catch and perhaps one day I'll give it a try. But not today, Cody wouldn't let me use his "fiddler pets" for bait so we left to grab some lunch. lol

16" Flounder @ Sleepy Hollow

Took the hour drive to Sleepy Hollow this morning and arrived around 10am. It was low tide and very shallow, I could see all the oyster bars that are usually underwater during high tide. I could also see fiddler crabs everywhere but they were too fast to catch! Next time during low tide, I need to remember to bring a small shovel to dig them out of their burrows.
The fishing was very slow during low tide. I tried several spots with no luck. Fortunately the tide turned and the water started rising. With the higher water levels came the baitfish which were all over. Another thing I need to bring is my castnet so I can fish live bait.
Today I fished with gulp products, 3" white gulp shrimp and 4" white gulp swimming mullet. I tried both, the shrimp didn't catch anything today. I did catch a nice 16" flounder on a white gulp swimming mullet though! It's the only fish today but well worth the trip. The flounder is one of my favorites to eat and I have a great blackened cajun recipe. It's so delicious!

Mix the following and sprinkle on the fish. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Chili Powder

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

Species: Flounder
Size: 16"
Bait: 4" white Gulp! Swimming Mullet

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.