the record will fall, when someone gets a big one from the quinalt. its possible to get a world record and still release the fish, so i'd have to say that it would be possible for the state to change their requirements. the only thing holding the state back from a catch and release record would be the verification part. good pictures might help with that. i think that the biggest problem is that most fishermen are terrific liars and 26 pounds becomes 33 pounds very easily.
there are a lot of catch and release records on the igfa website. the main thing you need to have is a certified scale. i've seen scales vary as much as 10% if they are not certified.