measuring a crappie

I talked to a gentleman the other day while fishing for crappie. The topic came up on how to correctly measure a crappie. I told him that to be on the safe side i only keep crappie ove nine inches. I told him that in the book it shows that you compress the tail slightly and measure from the tip of the mouth to the longest side of the tail. to do this accurately i told him to use a crappie cup. He said that both parts of the tail must be nine inches to keep. What do you guys think? I do know that if you look closely at a crappie tail that one side is a little longer than the other

ORIGINAL: Esox_Hunter

http://fishandboat.com/fishpub/summary/measure.html

 
Thats exactly the way i explained it to him. If you notice how they measure it. It appears that they measure it to the longer side of the tail therefore both sides don't have to be nine inches only one.

Thats the way I have always measured fish and I believe you are absolutely correct. I interpret the PFBC guide to mean that you measure from the mouth to the longest part of the tail, regardless of what part of this tail this point resides. If it exceeds 9" when you measure it along any part of the tail, send it to the bucket. Just don't forget to call me for the fish fry!

I use Frabill's Crappie EZ-CHECK'R. It's fast and there's no doubt. I believe that using a tape measure from the mouth then over the body to the tail gives an inaccurate measurement.