I would think that because it's open it means you can fish it for open species. The closed season applies mostly to waters stocked with trout. I know that fluke flounder and blackfish are closed, even tough the waters are open. Most ponds are open year round also, I believe. I always stayed away from shad till April 1, because I believed there was an open and closed (I think July 1) date. Odd thing is, I came to CTF this morning looking for shad regs, because the CTO fish report said that "someone filleted some shad at the Bissel launch", and I thought, maybe it's possible the regs changed.