Mitch the shad are there...The crappie are there. They are there like that every year and will stay through March. Gold creek's fish are allot like any other lake... if they decide they don't want to feed the Virgin Mary herself aint going to make it happen. Ive seen a tremendous amount of shad in the creeks/pool all over and very quickly limit out with nice fish. Other times you cant buy a bite. I dont buy into the belief there are so many shad they are not going to feed or bite. I do believe It's just up to them if the conditions are right they are going to bite... some shad or lots of shad. Ive also seen so many boats you could walk across them and every body catching the tarnation out of them. This is probly more rare than not but it does happen.