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.

3 Crappie and 2 Shad @ Mullet Lake Park

Hit the banks today from 9:45am to around 12:30pm. I noticed alot of boats on the river this morning, they were trolling back and forth catching small shad and crappie. Yesterday morning my buddy David reported he fished for 90 mins and caught 12 crappie and 5 shad all on chartreuse. Once a steady line of boats started moving through the bite suddenly stopped for him.

Today my first catch was a 13.75" american shad on chartreuse metalflake. Next fish was a 10.75" crappie on chartreuse also. Then the bite stopped for awhile. I changed colors but couldn't buy a bite for the longest time. I switched to 1/8th oz jigheads so I could cast further and then caught a small hickory shad around 11" on a white grub tail. My next two fish were crappies, both caught on chartreuse metalflake. Noticed some darker clouds moving into the area so called it a day.

2 Shad (1 american on chartreuse and 1 hickory on white)
3 Crappie (all on chartreuse)

With the two shad I caught today, my season total is now 26!

3 Crappie and 1 Catfish @ Mullet Lake Park

Stepped out to the river bank again this morning at the usual time around 10am. Normally I'm fishing for shad but today I was going for crappie instead. With a slow retrieve and random twitch, I caught a nice 11" crappie. Shortly after I caught another smaller crappie. The last crappie I caught today was the biggest of them all almost 12" long. All crappies were caught on the new Strike King Rage Tail Slab Hammer Crappie Grub in black/chartreuse tail. The tails on these grubs really move! They are so impressive that I plan on buying more color combinations. Each pack contains 10 grubs but the only problem is they are pretty expensive. Fortunately I can order them from Amazon.com where I use gift cards I've earned from online surveys.

Here's the Strike King Rage Tail Slab Hammer Crappie Grub
Black / Chartreuse Tail



And here's the 3 crappies I caught today using the above grub on a chartreuse jighead 1/16th. The two big ones were about 11-12" long! Slab Hammer!



I also fished with live minnows on a crappie rig and caught a catfish. It hit hard and took alot of drag before I could even get to my rod. The fight was fun on my light rod, and for awhile I thought it was a shad the way it raced and didn't stop. I haven't weighed the catfish yet but my guess it's around 1.5 lb

EZ Double Jig Rig - Favorite Shad & Crappie Colors

Here I'll explain the double jig rig I've been using this year. It doesn't require any swivels or snaps and it's super easy to make. All you need is some Spiderwire EZ Mono fishing line in Low-Viz Green. I like to use 10lb test for these rigs.



Pull out about 4-1/2 to 5 ft of line and fold in half. Now with the folded end, loop it around two fingers twice and then pull the tag through the loops you just made around your fingers. Pull the tag tight and now you basically have a loop at the top of the rig with two lines hanging down. Tie on the bottom jig to the end of one line. For the second jig, you want it about 10-12" above the bottom jig so you'll have to trim the other line before you tie on the second jig. Your finished rig should look something like this....



The loop at the top of the rig allows you to change rigs easily. I simply tie a snap-swivel to my mainline and thats all you need to change rigs! I always have pre-tied rigs available in different colors in my tackle bag so I'm ready to change lure colors within seconds. I keep each one in a separate ziplock bag to prevent tangles and to organize them better. Each ziplock bag contains a rig with different color combinations. One bag has a chartreuse grub rig, one has pink grub rig, one has white grub rig, etc.

Choosing the right lure color is very important. There are alot of factors that will determine what color is successful but it all greatly depends on what the fish want. There are a ton of colors and color combinations available on the market, so it doesn't hurt to have a variety of colors available so the fish can tell you what they want.

With shad and crappie, I normally fish these with 2" grub tails on a 1/16th oz jighead. When fishing from the shore, I always use the double jig rig I described in the beginning. It offers you the flexibility of using two different colors and it adds more attraction to your lures. I fish this rig slow with a twitch here and there to make it look like wounded baitfish. Here's the colors I've had the most success with this year on both shad and crappie.

black/chartreuse tail on chartreuse jighead
white/chartreuse tail on pink jighead
bubblegum pink on white jighead
chartreuse metalflake on pink jighead

For crappie, I like to start with the black/chartreuse tail and if I'm not getting any bites I'll switch to either pink or white. For shad, I've busted most of them on chartreuse metalflake but some days they prefer pink or white.

One shad / Two Catfish

Another day another report. The winds today were better but still gusty at times. My morning started with a small shad caught on a black/chartreuse grub tail. So thats number 24 for the year. I also fished with live minnows on a crappie rig and caught a couple catfish. As far as jigging, no luck except for the one shad early in the day. It sure was a slow day fishing so I left around 12:30. I'll probably try again in a few days and hope the bite picks up. I'm predicting this weekend will be good for crappie since Feb 7th is the full moon spawn.

3 More Shad @ Mullet Lake Park

Hit the river knowing it would be windy today. The north winds were very strong around 15mph and probably higher gusts. I started with chartreuse grub tails and didn't get any hits. I was having trouble getting distance with the wind so I decided to focus on crappie that should be in closer. I switched to pink grub tails on white 1/16th oz roadrunner jigheads and caught 3 shad using this setup. The last one hit so hard it busted the spin blade off the roadrunner jighead! I finished around 12:30pm because the winds were just too much. And with the 3 shad caught today, my season total is now 23! I'm still looking for my first 18-incher though. :)

Hickory Shad 11"
Hickory Shad 14.5"
American Shad 14.5"

20th Shad of the Season! with a few small Crappie

Today I received my order from Bass Pro Shop. With some gift cards I earned from online surveys, I was able to purchase some items for shad and crappie fishing.
1/16th oz pink jigheads
1/16th oz white jigheads
Bass Pro Heavy Glitter Squirmin' Grubs - white / chartreuse tail
Strike King Rage Tail Crappie Grubs - black / chartreuse tail

So this late afternoon I took Cody to the river bank at Mullet Lake. We probably got there around 3:30pm so it was a later trip than usual. Cody's setup was live minnows on a bottom rig with two hooks. Unfortunately he didn't get very many bites. He ended up catching 1 small catfish. My setup was the same double jig rig for shad fishing. The bite was slow though, I had a few small nibbles but nothing to play with. I jigged the crap outta that river and couldn't find the fish to bite. It wasn't until after 5pm when I finially caught a couple small crappie on the new white/chartreuse heavy glitter grub. Only one was big enough to keep though. I did hook into 1 shad before it was time to go and this makes my 20th shad of the season!

A Windy Tangled Day / Large Yellow Rat Snake

My day started with a little excitement early on as I was about to walk through the thick tall grass. What I noticed was a very long snake just laying in the grass next to the parking lot. This thing must have been 4-5 ft long no kidding! Just like Indiana Jones, I hate snakes. Can't stand them and to be honest, I don't really know how to identify them. So I took this picture and sent a text msg to my friend David who knows more about this stuff than I do. He said it's a Yellow Rat snake and it won't bother me. Once I knew it wasn't poisonious I was relieved for sure.



Today the weather started out good, nice and sunny with very few clouds. I caught a small shad early on and released it right away without measuring. I hooked up with another small one but it got off the hook before I could land it. As the day went on though the winds picked up and clouds blocked the sun. On top of that, my double rig kept tangling on my mainline in almost every cast making my morning very frustrating. I did catch some fish but I feel my day could've been more productive if I wasn't spending so much time untangling lines. All together I caught 2 shad about 12-13" each, 1 crappie and a catfish using cut shad.

So with the two shad I caught today my running season total is 19 shad this year! Tomorrow the forecast calls for early morning rain then winds 14-15mph, so it's highly doubtful I'll do any shad fishing tomorrow.

Big Mama Jama Shad @ Mullet Lake Park

I just can't get enough shad action, it's very addictive. Went out again today and fished the same spot. First tried a pink grubtail to see if I could get any crappie and only got a few bites. Nothing stayed on the hook though. So I switched over to my tried and true chartreuse with pink jighead. I stuck with this color for the rest of the day. I wasn't getting anything so I moved down to where the boats enter the river and caught two shad pretty much one after another. Moved back to my original spot and David arrived around 11:30. Sure enough the shad were biting again. I caught a small 11" male that was released. Then I caught a big girl was 17.50" to the fork and very fat. She's my biggest of the year so far. After that the bite stopped for awhile and then I caught another small 11" male that was released too.

As soon as I was packing to leave, David hooked into another shad. It didn't put up much of a fight so we didn't think it was as big as the others. However, when we put it on the measuring device, it was 18" to the fork! It surprised both of us. At this time David is in the lead for our division. Pretty cool! He always seems to 1-up me LOL

Today I landed 5 shad all together, only kept 3 of them since the others were pretty small. Plus my freezer is getting full. The goto lure was the same chartreuse grubtail with pink jighead (1/16 oz). I have now caught 17 shad this season!

Here's todays catch measurements and pictures:
17.50" (ties my all time personal best)
16.25"
13.75"
11"
11"

Shad Slam at Mullet Lake Park!

Today was my most productive day fishing at Mullet Lake. I hooked 2 smaller crappies early on pink grub tails. All of the crappies were up close so I tried to catch a few more. I noticed a trail of bubbles in the water up close again and thought it was some more crappie, so I jigged in front of the bubbles and got another bite. It wasn't a crappie though, it my first shad of the day on a pink grub tail on chartreuse jighead.
David showed up shortly after my first shad and this is when the fun began. The shad were biting like crazy in the middle of the river where we were casting our lines. I was in a zone when I caught one, then another, then another. Some bites were soft, and then some bites striked aggressively. David would get a fish on and at the same time I would get a bite. Twice we came really close to reeling in a shad at the same time. The hot lure for me was chartreuse grub tail on a pink jighead (1/16 oz). Soon the bite stopped and that was it for us today.

During the visit David caught 2 nice crappie which he was kind enough to give to me (thank you!). He also landed a big female shad that measured 17.5" to the fork! He is now tied with the leader in the shad derby for our division. Woot Woot!

Today I caught 4 shad and 2 crappie. The big female shad are definitly in the area now and this should be a fun upcoming week. So far this year I've caught 12 shad!

Crappie 10.5"
Crappie 9"
American Shad 14.25"
American Shad 13.75"
American Shad 11.50"
American Shad 11.50"

Here's a picture of the fish I caught today, it doesn't include the 2 crappie that David gave me.