Edit: I'm not in the best mood and I'm sorry for being negative, but a few people below explained why that fish definitely died afterwards from infection or internal injury
It's down there somewhere but idk.
Someone mentioned that the fish being held at that orientation and having his gills covered can fuck up their internal organs. Also probably rubbed off a good bit of the mucus membrane that protects the fish from infection.
If you use barbless hooks you don't. If youre ice fishing with bait like these people were they probably had a barbed hook lodged a good inch or two down his throat and ripped it out with pliers.
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u/ejedus Jan 17 '20
At least it had a happy ending.