My pond is ice free but it is only a little man made one about 2800 gallons. No sign of the fish yet but I don't expect to see any survivors til about the end of March at the earliest. We keep a pump running all winter sucking water from the 'deep' (3.5') end to the shallow end 2' lofting the hose to get some oxygen mixed into the water as it falls back into the pond. The fish hibernate in a cave under some large slabs of stone. Have done so for five years. The big ones have problems. We surmise they get stuck as they do continue to grow all winter, albeit slowly. I tried to block the entrance with some 4" mesh so the big guy couldn't get in but he finally found a spot to slip by in once in went in there was no coming out. Hopefully he won't be like a cork in the bottle and block the way for the smaller fellows (2-4") to escape.
