Has anyone else noticed that the spots on redfish are becoming more abundant in numbers?
I remember years ago, a redfish only had one spot. Now almost all the fish I see have more than one.
Is there something happening genetically here?

I've always been told the one spots are native, multiple spots is a hatchery fish. If I'm mistaken, someone please tell me.

Been that way for years Ash. My uncle says the juvi reds are the ones with a bunch of spots most of the time. Not all the juvis, but if you have a red with LOTS of spots, according to him and some other old-timers, it's probably a juvi.

There are tourneys held where the red with the most spots wins. Pretty cool looking "weigh" ins and pics from those.

I've been told the same thing.

Cool to know! Thanks y'all. Most spots on a red I ever caught was total of 38. Very cool to see reds with multiple spots.

Caught one on Sabine Lake in October that had 8 on one side and 7 on the other. Fish was in the 7-8 lb. range.

The hatchery folks that I have visited with contradict the native vs hatchery view. Simply genetics at work according to the the ones I have visited with. I also think there was an article that addressed this issue in the Texas Saltwater Fishing magazine in the last year or two.
According to the hatchery folks, the hatchery fish used for breeding are rod and reel caught bull reds from the Gulf. They are then used for breeding for several seasons and released and replaced with different Gulf caught bull reds to maintain genetic diversity.
My folks got to know one of the hatchery guys through wade fishing and he invited my family and I to visit the hatchery and do a private tour. The stock of bull reds used for breeding, and the methodology of manipulating light duration to "convince" the reds to breed is quite impressive.

yeah, i would say the hatchery v. native thing isn't accurate because at calaveras where i fish all the reds are stocked (hatchery fish) and i've seen some with 0 spots, 1 spot, 2 spots, all the way up to about 50 spots... just an observation

WOW, 38 to 50 spots! That's a lot. I've never caught a red w/ no spots. If TPWD is getting breeding stock from the gulf and changes the breeders every so often, I would think that genentics is not an issue,IMOHO.

nice!
here's mine: