catching a muskie through the ice is extremly rare, and i have only witnessed it one time, which happened to be a few days ago as the guy i was fishing with caught a 33 incher on a fathead. unless your fishing a lake well known for muskies i wouldn't count on catching one through the ice, its my understanding that muskies are extremely dormant in the winter months. the lake i was fishing on has pretty good muskie numbers, and very few get caught. i've been told that muskie are the fish of ten thousand casts on open water, so i think they are probably about the fish of a million on the ice.