Looking at the TPWD freshwater reports, they are showing blues and channels picking up and the rating on several lakes has gone from slow to fair, to good. Is that an indication that the spawn has started?

Dosent exactly mean they are spawning, just means more fish have moved shallow to feed and are eaiser to catch. Both blues and channels will go shallow to feed long before they spawn. IMO blues get harder to catch once they start to spawn.

I just think they are starting to feed more.

Check water Temps if you really wanna know. In my handfishing experience channels start spawning when the water hits around 71-76 degrees. With blues starting when the water is around 74 degrees to 78. Then flatties start once the water hits around 77-82 degrees. These are all temps based off of what the actual surface temp is. Not what the temp of the water that the fish are actually occupying which may vary by more than 5 degrees.Those ranges I listed are when the majority of the spawn takes place for that species.. that doesnt mean that some will spawn when the water is a lower or higher temp than the ones listed cuz water temp is only one of many factors which effects spawning habits...toss ranges are just from my experience when the majority of the spawn takes place. Take into consideration that water Temps will start to drop the deeper you go and also alot of spawning holes are cooler than the rest of the surrounding water due to lack of sunlight and not much circulation. This is all assuming that you are speaking of still bodies of water like lakes and the creeks that feed them. Rivers will always warm up faster and have more similar temps throughout the water column. Also the water Temps normally have to be consistent and stay the same or higher for at least a few days to a week before the fish will be comfortable enough and for the eggs to develop into the last stage of development before they are ready to be laid and fertilized....so the best advice I can give is to not rely on anything other than actually testing the water Temps yourself to make a guess whether they are spawning or not.

Also last year the flathead spawn didn't get into to full swing until late may and throughout june. I have a bad memory so I could be off by a couple weeks on that but you get the idea lol

Old timers general rule of thumb, when the cotton wood trees start to drop those white cotton shoots, the spawn usually starts. I've come to notice this to be true. The water temps are usually getting into the right range when this occurs.

That's another thing I forgot to mention I can't even begin to count how many people told me that exact same thing when I was first getting into handfishing lol. And believe me..there are ALOT of cottonwood trees here in kansas. And if i remember right from elementary school, the cottonwood tree is even the state tree I think. Lol

blues and channels spawn about the same time which is starting around June 7th to june 24th up to some later but usually done by July .. when the third week of may rolls around the blues are gone from the lake here in northern OK so that'll happen earlier down there ... you guys don't have big tributaries in alot of your lakes so they can't make the run as blues are migratory spawners if it's possible for them to ... mostly down in texas they'll be spawning around shore in the lilly pads and under cattail floatillas and such. If they can build a nest under broke rock structure they will but don't associate them biting better with the spawn because they don't bite when they're actually spawning ... they're not crappie and don't act like crappie... pre spawn you'll find them feeding heavy in shallows and out on the flats where there's shad but don't be looking for shad to tell you there's fish there ... look for the fish ... it's good to see shad in an area where there's fish and the shad all busted up and scattered because that means they're being chased by the blues most generally. Channels getting ready to spawn will hang out near rip rap and broken rock structure as they're mostly resident spawners and don't migrate like blues will if they can. blues will be hard to catch down there towards the last week of may as that's when they should start chasin the gals and building nests. you can start fishing for them again probably just before july 1st too ... they'll really be hungry bout then

Water temperature is still running in low 60s so it should still be a while.

So, if I go this coming Friday do you think I will at least get something? I will be going to Lake Tawakoni just to see how it is. Does anyone know how shallow they are at this time? I have seen some who managed to catch close to the limit.

Lot of people were catching them in river at Twok.

I fished the stumps next to creek channel at wind point park. Caught a bunch shallow. But all the water out there is about 10ft or less.. Caught over 50 in the stumps. The cove next too the boat ramp has fish in it too. Fish all over that part of the lake really.