Lt'lDog - Golden shiners like gizzard shad are not usually considered a tasty and valuable panfish.
Other Downsides that I can think of right now are listed below.
Note some of the things, that I mention, could be considered a positive or negative feature depending on "what you are looking for" ie Fishery GOALS or your point of view.
1. They do not get as large and wide in the body as gizzard shad, thus a large bass 18"-20" could easily swallow a 10" g.shiner which has a body depth of 2 5/8". I currently have 10" g.shiner in my SMB pond. Thus the shiners would need quite a bit of cover / refugia / weedy areas to maintain adequate breeding populations of 6"-10" adults in the presence of "heavy" bass populations. In a weed-free pond, LMB will easily and pretty quickly eliminate all g. shiners. Thus I see g. shiners working better with either HSB, yellow perch, SMB and walleye as primary predators than with LMB.
2. They are not quite as prolific as gizzard shad. But they do measure up as egg producers. Females 5.25" to 5 3/4" long were reported to produce 2290 to 4600 eggs. Some authors have reported as many as 200,000 eggs from real large females (prob abt 10" -12" fish). They can live longer (6-10yrs) than gizzard shad (3yrs -5yrs.) if not eaten first.
3. Young do not grow as fast and thus do not get a wide body wise as gizzard shad. One year old g. shiner get to about 2" north and 4" long in south. So a golden shiner is vulnerable to being eaten for a longer period of its 1st 2-3 yrs of life compard to a gizzard shad. A three yr g.shiner I think would be about abt 6"-7" long in mid US or northern areas.
4. G.shiner can tolerate quite low oxygen levels, down to 1.4pm for 2 days. They have been reported to survive 0.2ppm dissolved Oxygen.
5. They eat a wider variety of food organisms than gizzard shad. G.shiner are true omnivours, sight feeders and will compete directly with bgill and small bass by eating lots of insect larvae, amphipods, and larger zooplankton. They have been reported as good controlers of mosquito larvae. Some reported them as eating a few plant fragments including filamentous algae plus small amounts of silt and detritus.
6. It can jump out of the water when chased or frightened.
7. Delicate minnow and difficult to keep alive for long periods in a bait bucket.
8. I catch lots of them during spawning season on a small hook #12 baited with worm. I have caught them ice fishing with wax worms and spikes. Some consider them bait stealers when fishing for panfish.
9. When abundant, they have been reported to eat some bass fry. I think larger ones would eat any ungarded fish that is less than 1" long. Note - Bgill, sunfish, perch, crappie etc all do the same thing. Predator mouth size determines how big of a fish it will consume if it can catch it.
10. Very shallow areas with fine emergent weeds are best for egg laying areas. G.shiners have been observed to be allowed to lay eggs (68F-80F) in LMB nests while the male bass guarded bass eggs.
11. They as aging populations have been reported to get infected with a parasite microsporidian (sporozoan) in the ovaries that reduces the egg production especially for bait producers. I have not seen this problem in my pond.
In the correct situations, I see them as beneficial and helping to diversify the forage base.
