Darters SC/NC

Ok, i get that darters live in streams and are found on "riffles", but are the found in almost any stream or river? Dont know if you feel like telling locations, but does anyone know of specific names or streams/rivers or places that have darters in Western NC (Bryson City) or an area very close to Columbia, SC. I'm interested in trying to find some but i just dont really get what to look for. I dont even know of any streams near me, heh. Also, can different things be considered "riffles" or is it just a typical rocky section of a river.

Also, I think the river i go to in WNC is the "Nantahala". Does anyone know of darters in this specific river or in the area?

Any help would be appreciated and sorry if i'm just stupid

You can find darters in lots of different habitats, but small to moderate-sized streams are where they seem to be most diverse and abundant (not to mention easier to catch). Riffles are stream areas where the water is shallow enough to ripple where it passes over the rocks beneath; they're sort of a miniature version of a shoal in a river. Darters can also be found in stream pools, runs, eddies, etc.; often the darter communities in different stream habitat types will be different, so be sure to sample them all!

The Nanny drainage is chock full of darters. It's much easier to sample in the smaller streams than in the river proper (you also might get fussed at for netting in the river, as it may be a trout stream). Some darters are protected, so be sure you take a good regional guidebook or a more experienced fishhead to make sure you don't hang onto any rare species you might turn up. I don't know if there's a recent North Carolina fish book, but the Tennessee fish book (Etnier and Starnes) will cover most of the species in the Nanny.

Yeah i figured that if i did that i might get a kind of negative reaction those trout people can get kind of psycho about that stuff! If i go up there this summer, i'm thinking about maybe going in a part thats kind of back off where no one can drive by and freak out, heh. BTW, thanks for the clarification. It really helps.

SOme of the nicest and easiest to keep of all darters are found within an hour or so of Columbia. We get savannah, seagreen, turquoise, swamp, sawcheek and tesselated, as well as Christmas and Carolina(which are both pretty to look at but protected in SC). Most of the local streams will have at least tesselateds. You are welcome to come out with us sometime and see what's around.