Streams close to pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg with cool natives?

This is kind of short notice, but I will be near the pigeon forge area(strawberry plains to be exact) this weekend. I dont think that this trip is fishing oriented, but id love to get a few good trips in. I will mostly be angling for smallmouth or trout( or whatever i can catch), but im bring a small siene and I know that they have some quite interesting fish down there compared to ohio. Id love to catch some tennessee shiners or redline darters, are they in any streams close to there? thanks

Fishfray,

I'll jump in here with a little info. 1st, NANFA is not a governing body and we support all state/local regulations. Please read into TN's laws and the rules of the GSMNP. But, here's some info as I know it.

1. No seining inside the Smokey Mountain National Park
2. No seining in Trout streams
3. TN law prohibits you from removing seined fish from the location you collected them. Meaning, you can catch..photo/look at the fish, but cannot remove them from that location

That being said. There are tons of areas around Pigeon Forge (not in the national park) and Townsend (not in the park) that you could get in and take a look at the fish. Drive the strip in Townsend, you'll find easy access

A little secondary advice. If you want to keep fish, try Kentucky on your way back home.

I did look quite deeply into the regulations , and found it somewhat confusing. I will not be keeping or transporting fish, so that isn't going to be an issue. Does this mean that I can't seine in the little pigeon river or holsten river, even in areas far away from stocking? In that case would I have to find a small creek somewhere to observe natives? I was hoping to use some minnows( not rare or pretty ones) for bait also, but if I can't transport them and I can't seine in the streams im fishing, then that won't work

Be careful, Tennessee wildlife officials do work to enforce their (muddled) regulations more so than, say, 'bama. On balance the state has become "don't collect".

Well, the trip is over and the seine never touched a river, so no worries. Thanks for the help