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Scientists in St. Petersburg have 4.2 million babies they are trying to account for.

They'll leave no mangrove unturned as they try to track down some of the juvenile redfish released in north Tampa Bay between 2001 and 2005.

Anglers participating in the RedSnook Catch and Release fishing tournament in Naples today and Sunday will take part in the fish hunt. The anglers who actually catch a redfish are asked to take a clip from the dorsal fin. Volunteers will send the nickel-sized pieces to St. Petersburg, where they will be DNA tested to see if the samples match fish raised in a hatchery.

"We're probably not going to find too many hatchery fish down here, but stranger things have happened," said Bryan Fluech, a scientist for the University of Florida Extension Service, who works out of Rookery Bay.

So far, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission scientists have collected more than 6,000 fin clips from more than 1,200 anglers, said Gina Russo, outreach coordinator for FWC's stock enhancement research facility.

Of the samples tested so far, 72 came from the hatchery, Russo said.

The furthest find was by a fisherman who recently caught a 27 1/2-inch redfish in south Sarasota Bay. The fish was originally released a couple years ago about four miles up the Alafia River in north Tampa Bay.

"We're finding that our hatchery fish are entering the fishery," Russo said. That is the point of the fin-clip program "” to see if the hatchery experiment actually worked.

"We had to find a way to track millions of baby redfish that went out into the wild when they were 1 to 2 inches," Russo said.

Along with size and take limits, the hatchery program is another way officials manage the fishery.

Anglers are a great help because they fish areas that scientists don't reach in their tracking attempts, Russo said.

"They get into the nooks and crannies," she said. "Plus, this is their program. This is their future fishery and what revenues from their saltwater fishing licenses are paying for."

This is the first year that anglers in the RedSnook tournament will participate in the fin clip program. Those who participate have a chance to a prize.

While they may not catch any hatchery redfish, the information they collect could be important down the road, Fluech said.

Along with a fin clip, anglers will write down the size of the fish, where it was caught and what time it was caught.

"The more data they can collect on redfish, the more we can understand it," Fluech said. "The fin clips will give us a genetic map of our redfish."

And who knows, someone could get lucky and land a monster that swam all the way from Tampa Bay.