Anderson: In early June, Minnesota fish are begging to be caught. Won’t you help?

One of the largest migrations of living things that will occur in Minnesota this year — or any year — is on the cusp of happening just now.

But most people won’t see it.

Because it’s transpiring underwater.

Yet the movement is clearly apparent to Jane Sage, because it’s represented in the June bookings of her family’s resort on Lake of the Woods.

“We’re full,” she said.

Jon Schei can see it, too. He’s in his 32nd year of guiding at Gunflint Lodge, focusing right now with his eager clients on Lake Saganaga walleyes at the end of the Gunflint Trail.

“Typically, the water up here is a little cold in May,” Schei said. “But when June comes and walleyes start moving into the bays, which warm first, they‘ll bite pretty good.”

It’s not only up north where walleyes are on the move at June’s outset, making them relatively easy pickings for Minnesota’s more than 1 million anglers. In the Twin Cities and throughout much of central Minnesota, the action is heating up, too.

“I was on the St. Croix the other day with two clients and we caught and released more than 100 fish,” said Dick “Griz” Grzywinski, a St. Paul fishing guide. “We had nine different species in all, including walleyes.”

Throughout much of Minnesota, walleyes have departed their spawning haunts for a combination of comfortable water temperatures and enough forage to satisfy their increasingly large appetites.

Which is where anglers’ oh-so-tempting baits come in.

“Yellow perch are a primary forage fish for walleyes, but the young-of-the-year perch are too small in June to provide much to eat,” said Paul Radomski, a Minnesota fisheries research scientist and author of “Walleye: A Beautiful Fish of the Dark.” “That’s one reason anglers often have better success with their baits in June than they do in mid-summer, when yellow perch have grown larger and are a bigger part of the walleye’s diet.”

Walleyes aren’t the only fish to provide hot action for Minnesota anglers during the first few weeks of June. Whether they’ve just finished spawning, or will soon, other fish are on the move, too.

“Marv and I were on Upper Hay Lake on Wednesday,” said Mike Arms, a retired Catholic priest who lives on Cross Lake in Crow Wing County. ”We started out looking for walleyes. But ended up with a stringer of sunfish."

“Marv” is Arms’ fishing buddy Marv Koep, who along with his wife, Judy, founded and operated Koep’s Nisswa Bait & Tackle along Hwy. 371 just north of Brainerd for 32 years before closing the shop a few decades back.

“Definitely, the first two weeks of June are the best fishing time in the Brainerd area,” Marv Koep said. “You might not find every species every day, as was the case with walleyes on Upper Hay for Mike and me. But there’s so much happening at this time of year, with sunfish, bass and crappies, in addition to walleyes. Something will be biting.”

That’s true in the metro area, as well, where the region’s big-hitter fishing lakes include Minnetonka, Waconia, Bald Eagle, White Bear and Forest. Most of these are stocked every other year with walleyes, and also offer productive fishing for bass, crappies and sunfish.

But many smaller and lesser known lakes in and around the Twin Cities also provide great fishing action. Some are managed by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for anglers who don’t have boats, and especially for kids.

The agency’s Fishing in the Neighborhood (FIN) program, in fact, is specifically designed to hook metro kids on fishing. A big part of the initiative has been construction of fishing piers on the approximately 70 Twin Cities lakes included in the FIN program.

“All or nearly all of our FIN lakes have fishing piers,” said Tim Ohmann, a DNR fisheries specialist who oversees the program in the east metro. “The piers are important in the metro to increase access for shore anglers.”

The DNR regularly stocks FIN lakes with sunfish and crappies to ensure young anglers have a chance to catch a fish.

“Some of these lakes are also stocked with walleyes,” Ohmann said. “Cobblestone and Farquar are two FIN lakes in Dakota County that have walleyes in them.”

This summer, the DNR is joining with Twin Cities community education programs, such as those in White Bear Lake and Spring Lake Park, as well as others, to introduce kids to fishing. Equipment will be provided, along with a chance to fish at a local lake. Parents should check with local community education programs for details.

Meanwhile, in five easy steps, here’s a snapshot guide to Minnesota’s early June fishing:

• Never fished before? No problem. The DNR has detailed information, including videos, on everything from equipment you’ll need to how to bait a hook.

• Don’t know where to go? Pick a lake, any lake. Then check it out on the DNR Lake Finder to see which fish species the lake holds; locations of boat ramps and fishing piers; and whether it’s been stocked with walleyes or other fish.

• Want walleyes? Choose a lake with a good population of these fish. Check with bait shops, other anglers or guides for activity reports. Buy a cheap lake depth map or, preferably, subscribe to an online map and fishing lake information service. Carry an arsenal that includes slip-bobber and sliding-sinker rigs with No. 4 colored hooks, as well as ⅛-ounce jigs. Fish during low light, such as mornings or evenings, cloudy skies, darker-colored water and/or a slight chop on the water surface. Red-tailed chubs are terrific walleye baits. But they’re tough to find and expensive. Now, in June, try leeches.

• Prefer instead the fast action of sunfish and crappies? Both can be reached from piers and shore, as well as from boats and by wading. In much of Minnesota, the next two weeks will provide the best fishing for both. For sunnies, try wax worms. Or better (and cheaper) yet, try plastic Mr. Twisters. The latter will catch crappies, too. Or try crappie minnows.

• And don’t forget bass. Largemouth start spawning when water temperatures reach about 60 degrees, and smallmouth begin about then, too. Depending on where you are in the state, that’s now — or will be in the next two weeks.