Extremely Rare ‘Leopard Redfish’ Caught In Louisiana With 670 Total Spots, Looks Like A Total Freak Of Nature

leopard redfish extremely rare Louisiana

Capt. Eddie Berthelot Jr. / Spots & Specs Charters


This picture of a redfish caught near Golden Meadow and Grand Isle, Louisiana has been going viral because it’s a genetic mutation that hasn’t been seen in quite some time. The ‘leopard redfish’ is classified as ‘extremely rare’, and it’s not a subspecies, it’s a genetic mutation which causes the fish to be completely covered in black spots.

A typical redfish only has one black spot located at the tip of the tail, though it’s not at all rare to catch fish with more than one spot. This black spot acts as natural camouflage because underwater that black spot appears to be the eyeball of a large predator, and this in turn wards predators off.

In total, this leopard redfish caught by Capt. Eddie Berthelot Jr., owner/operator of Spots & Specs Charters in Louisiana, has an astounding 670 spots across its body:


This is a total freak of nature, a genetic mutation gone wild. I’ve tried to track down some stats on how frequent ‘leopard redfish’ are in the wild but these stats apparently don’t exist. Perhaps it’s because the fish are so rare there’s simply no way to track them, or perhaps it’s because the people tracking this genetic mutation just suck at putting their research on the Internet. Whatever the case is it seems like only one of these fish is caught every half decade, maybe less. I found documentation of one caught last Summer with 600 spots, but prior to that the only records I could find where a fish caught in the Florida Everglades back in 1996.

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This fish was caught by Capt. Eddie Berthelot Jr. using a live Cocahoe Minnow, and it measured 28-inches. He counted 85 spots in one 3-inch area on its tail. In total, there were 342 spots on one side of the fish and 328 spots on the other. Which is approximately 699 more spots than your average redfish.

Capt. Eddie kept the fish to have it mounted, and apparently had been on the hunt for quite some time for a redfish memorable enough to bring to the taxidermist. He found EXACTLY that in this rare leopard redfish as it’s most certainly the catch of a lifetime.

To book a charter with Capt. Eddie and his Spots & Specs Charters in Louisiana you can follow that link to his Facebook Page (with his contact info). And for more on how and where this rare leopard redfish was caught you follow this link to head on over to LouisianaSportsman.com.

[h/t WideopenSpaces]

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Cass Anderson is the Editor-in-Chief of BroBible. Based out of Florida, he covers an array of topics including NFL, Pop Culture, Fishing News, and the Outdoors.