I often search various creeks in Wake County after big rains as the sediments have been shifted revealing crystals that have been buried for years, decades, or more. I'm always amazed at how much these little creeks or drainages can change after a few big rains.  The sand bars and rocks can completely shift from one side of the creek to the other, the creek banks undergo sloughing revealing new in situ material, and all the sand sediment has been moved uncovering new rocks.   The crystals I find are seldom without damage from being banged around among all the other rocks, but the benefit is that you don't have to dig, and its almost always in the cool shade.

A good tip when searching creeks for stones is to search with the same vigor on the way back to your entrance point of the creek.  Even if this takes you right back over your own footsteps.  You will be surprised at what you may have missed.  Two easy to understand reasons for this.  The first is that the angle of your perspective is completely changed which will allow you physically see what you couldn't have seen going the other direction.  It's almost like being able to search two different creeks as opposed to just one.  The second is that by the time you make your way back up the creek the suns angle in the sky will have also changed casting light in new places and reflecting off surfaces previously in the shadows.  I have found many good crystals on the way back.   

Yes, this creek runs within a zone we have identified within Wake County that seems to produce crystals.  Construction sites nearby have produced crystal pockets.  I have not had any luck finding crystal pockets in this creek but they must be there since crystals can be found in the creek.  I am sure that with enough persistence I will find a pocket in the wall of the creek sometime in the future.