Time is growing shorter for a seasonal staple, for those hearty enough to endure the elements.

The ice fishing season isn’t what it was even earlier this century, said Dan Indicavitch, president of the Southeast Sportsmen’s Club, based in Chicago’s Hegewisch neighborhood.

“In the last 20 years, there’ve been some years people haven’t been able to fish at all,” he said. “Winters are getting shorter. We had to move our tournament from February to January.”

Indicavitch’s observation was backed up by a Jan. 16 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finding winters are now 14 days shorter on the waters of the Great Lakes than in 1995.

Thanks to a January cold spell, conditions were still suitable for ice fishing in early February, as people were seen out on the ice Wednesday at the south end of Wolf Lake on Chicago’s Southeast Side. But conditions weren’t ideal.

“It’s starting to melt near the shore,” Indicavitch said. “They’re putting down boards to get out there.”

Ice fishing may be winding down for the season, but at least it happened this year. Last year, ice cover on the Great Lakes reached historic lows, according to another report by NOAA.

Despite steady declines in ice cover noted between 1973 and 2023, scientists also predicted that some years ice will still become relatively thick.

That prediction materialized on the last Sunday of January, when more than 10 inches of ice rested atop Wolf Lake, which straddles the Indiana state line. So about 140 Southeast Side Sportsmen’s Club members, family members and friends showed up for an ice fishing tournament, along with breakfast and a buffet-style lunch at the clubhouse on the 131st block of South Avenue M.

With temperatures lingering in the 20s that sunny morning, slush formed quickly inside of one fishing hole, prompting John Gubala of Chicago Ridge to use a rod tip to swish away the ice. He and his buddies Dan Famera of Palos Heights and Mike Ulbricht of Blue Island had set up a tented station at the south end of the lake.

Ulbricht said he has ice fished at other Chicago area cold spots, including Lemont Quarries and Saganashkee Slough, but it was Famera who proved his fishing prowess that morning. Chomping on a lit cigar, he yanked a gasping, squirming largemouth bass from below the ice surface.

Like others who stood on the lake that day, surrounded by acres of ice, the three men seemed grateful for ideal ice fishing conditions.On shore, in back of the clubhouse, several people gathered around a bonfire.

Those who caught fish brought them to be measured and weighed inside the clubhouse, where plenty of taxidermied fish and other wild creatures adorn the walls.

Befitting the name of the club, which was organized in the 1930s, it was mostly men who ventured onto the ice dressed in heavy jackets and bib-style Carhartt overalls or full-body camo suits. But a few women and children fished too.

Wearing a down coat, furry hat and purple mittens, Melanie Matich of Valparaiso, Indiana, caught a largemouth bass and several perch. “I was raised on the East Side, Hegewisch,” she said. “I was so happy to come back here to fish.”

On the channel behind the clubhouse, Mike Kowalski fished with floats, spikes and nightcrawlers.

The morning calm was periodically broken by loud cracking sounds. “Don’t worry,” he said. “That’s the ice expanding — kind of like ice cubes forming in your freezer. It’s not melting.”

A member of the club since childhood, Kowalski, of North Hammond, said he’s ice fished many times over the years and filleted lots of fish afterward.

“Something like a northern pike requires different cuts so you don’t leave a lot on the bones,” Kowalski said. “That’s what the old timers taught me.”

Just then, a young boy whizzed by on skates. “That’s what this day is about, passing that knowledge on to the next generation,” Kowalski said.

Matthew Culjak, 9, had too much energy to sit still and watch the tip-up on his ice hole for signs of fish activity. Between bites, he skated up and down the channel, while his cousin, Jose Culjak, and friend, Rudy Verdugo, kept watch.

Around 11 a.m., the younger boys alerted Culjak to activity. A great northern pike was on the line.

The fish turned out to be smallish for a northern, under 22 inches. After a round of photos taken by friends and family, Culjak released the young fish back into the hole in the ice.

To save fish lives, other fishermen took care to practice “catch and release,” but some would end up eating their catch.

Culjak later caught a larger northern. His older brother, Anthony Culjak, carried the fish to the weigh-in table. By then the club house was packed.

At 25.5 inches and 2.55 pounds, Culjak’s great northern netted first place for a fish caught by a child. At the announcement, the clubhouse erupted in cheers and whistles.

A more experienced ice angler, Pete Bradich also caught a first-prize-winning northern measured at 33.5 inches and 8.8 pounds. He also grabbed first prize for a largemouth bass at 19.5 inches and 3.85 pounds.

When someone asked the location of his productive fishing hole, he said it was on the Indiana side of Wolf Lake, adding, “but I got there by way of Illinois access.”

Catching the largest crappie was Frank Smagacz, of Hegewisch, a retired Chicago firefighter and club member for 26 years. Coming in at 11.25 inches, the fish was good size for a crappie but small compared to the northerns.

“I fish for whatever bites,” Smagacz said.

While winners received white envelopes, with little mention of what was inside, there was something larger at stake.

“You can just say the prize is braggin’ rights,” said Gloria Cote, secretary for the club.

The other reward was the time on the ice itself, something that’s becoming more precious as years go by.

Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter.