Quote Originally Posted by itsbob View Post
yes,Pinch the back fin together and measure that to the nose.There is some discussion on walleye shrinking 1/4" in cooler so may want to take that into account.
Thanks Bob. I actually just found this on the ODNR site as well.

How To Measure a Fish
The measurement of the length of a fish is taken in a straight line from the utmost end of the snout with the mouth closed to the utmost end of the caudal (tail) fin when the tail fin is compressed so that the upper and lower lobes touch or overlap.

Measure the fish with the mouth closed and tail compressed to determine total length.

Good advice about shrinking in the cooler. I personally don't normally keep anything that would be that close to the legal limit but it's still good to know.