I hope to catch more shiners this spring/summer. I can find the normal bluntnose/emeral/silver shiner pretty easy. But I hope to find more shiners like Tricolor, Scarlet, Redfin, Warpaint, etc... this year. Where can you find (i.e. pools, riffles, deep, shallow) these kinds of shiners and what is the best method?

I don't have specific experience with those species but all of my shiners and minnows have been caught with an umbrella drop net off of bridges and high rocks. I have luck baiting and not baiting with bread.

Scarlet shiners are usually in flowing pools just above or below riffles. Warpaints, on the other hand, love flowing water; if a creek has somewhat dangerous looking whitewater that's where the warpaints are. And telescope shiners like the riffles but not the crazy whitewater. To find a variety of shiners you have to sample a variety of microhabitats. If you have a seine with 3 or 4 people it's the most efficient way to net shiners, two holding the seine and two working as kickers.

Try as many techniques, streams, and microhabitats as possible. My methods would change based on the target fish, the stream, and the time of year. Fish will have moved toward deeper pools this time of year or into the tree roots along the banks. I can't resist adding an aside: I caught a Northern Hogsucker in the Clinton River in Michigan Saturday. The water was so cold that ice on the dipnet would not melt, even when holding the dipnet in a strong current. Below one spillway, 75% of the bottom was covered with anchor ice.

Logic says that you will catch more fish with a 48 square foot net than a 1.5 square foot dipnet. Most of the time I can catch sight of minnows so I know where the minnow were. Run the seine up through pools and lift when you get the the riffle, under overhanging branches, run it into a bank, up a sandbar, etc. You can also run the seine downstream.

For Pteronotropis (none in KY), you can even slide the seine under the fish and then lift.