Mounted Aluminum Cull Gauge

The standard plastic cull sticks are sold about 1/16" undersized. The makers cut them that way on purpose, because they know crab shell will wear the notch open. So it starts its life passing shorts, wears through true somewhere in the middle, and finishes throwing keepers back within months. If you're burning two of them a year per size, you already know how this goes. You cull in good conscience, but you're only as good as the stick you trust.

This one is machined from solid 5/8" 6061 aluminum bar right here in Baltimore, MD. The gauge is cut to less than .005" of true, so it will never read short. Blue crab points do not chew through aluminum bar the way they chew through plastic. It's right the day you bolt it on, and it stays right so you can focus on getting to the next pot.

One stick, every grade, seconds a crab

The 5-1/4" stick also carries notches at 5-3/4" and 6". Legal check, number one, max, all on the same bar without reaching for a second gauge. Your number ones are the check. A 6" jimmy mixed into the wrong basket, or a number one sold down a grade because you're sorting by eye at 4 am, that's dock price you already caught and didn't get paid for. Grade to the notch and it stops.

What you're getting

• Gauge held to .005". Bring your calipers to the dock. We'll win that bet.
• Three notches, one bar. 5-1/4" legal, 5-3/4", and 6" grading marks. Sort ones from maxes as fast as you cull.
• No break-in, no drift. Not undersized out of the box, not worn open in two seasons.
• Bolts to your board, left or right handed. Both hands on crabs, not one on a gauge.
• Solid bar, not molded. 5/8" thick 6061, machined in Baltimore from domestic stock. Made in the USA with USA materials in a family machine shop.

Which size do you need?

5-1/4" is Maryland's legal hard crab from July 15 through December.

5" is the legal hard crab in Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas year round, Maryland from April 1 through July 14, and the commercial minimum in Florida and Louisiana.

4-1/2" is New York and New Jersey.

All three are the same 5/8" 6061 bar, same .005" gauge, same price. The 5-1/4" ships now. The 5" and 4-1/2" are listed as sold out: pick your size and tap Notify me. That count is how we decide which to machine next, and you get an email the day it's ready. Every state's minimum, cited to the regulation, is on our regulations by state page. If you fish Maryland all season you want both the 5" and the 5-1/4", or you want to know exactly what your plastic stick reads on July 14. Here's why that matters.

Why it costs what it costs

You're buying plastic sticks twice a year, every year, per size you run. That's not a gauge, that's a subscription. This is priced like a season of plastic and built to end the reorder. Dealers and fleets: $35 each on orders of 10 or more.

Shipping and returns

• Free USPS shipping. Orders over $50 ship free, and one stick clears it.
• Ships in 2 business days from our shop in Baltimore, MD.
• The calipers guarantee. Measure it against your own calipers when it lands. If the gauge doesn't read true, send it back and we'll refund it, no argument and no restocking fee.

New to culling, or want to know how the dock grades? How to measure a blue crab and how they're graded.