I’m not sure that thing would fold up enough to get through an 8 inch hole in the ice
The cool thing is it was released, not sure you can do that with a record size fish in Wisconsin or Minnesota. I know they were talking about coming up with a way to at one time.
The release is totally cool. I believe you can release a record in MN or WI, but you have to keep it alive through the weighing and verification process.
Not according to the books, but it was recently done with that largemouth. So, anything can be done, how much trouble one could get into is whole nother thing.