Ya clips and rings would be fool proof. By the time I could land a fish, unhook it and put it in the cooler yesterday I was blowing into the bank or 20 yards off the place I caught it. The added step of using rings would just add to that pain in the butt. But it is definitely a do-able, accurate method that I will consider. Thanks.
There isn't a lot of meat on a 9-10 inch crappie. But weren't the limits made that way to help manage the overall population? Would it not be better to keep the unders? Or is it just a way to keep a higher creel limit without harvesting as many bigger fish? Serious question, I don't know. I just started crappie fishing a few years ago.