tool to measure your crab!

[ducker]

So I've been looking around to find a good portable tool to bring me when I go out crabbing in MA.  Regulation is 5" I usually have a way I can check on it when out in the field, and then I double check when I get home - but I'd love to have a handy device better than a tape measure with while fishing.  The local tackle shop doesn't have any.  Amazon looked like they have some for down south --- but not much for us up here in MA!!!
If I had a 3d printer I assume I could print one!! but alas I don't

Thanks for any suggestions - before I go out and buy a type of caliper

[MichaelD]

Light, compact, portable, easy to read, needs no calibration, and it floats!   

Got it for only $50 on Ebay...free shipping 

 

[UbiquitousOne]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082HFTCSN/?tag=bca1-20

I recently bought this crab gauge on Amazon. The 5" indent is pretty small but it does the job.

[Jho88]

I have a 3d printer and still made an uglier one faster with plexiglass a band saw and sandpaper. Basically grab any scrap hard piece of plastic and hack it up.

[ducker]

thanks for the ideas and jokes   love it all !!!

[fishgeek]

If you can find a place that sells commercial lobster gear, ask for an Area 1 max lobster gauge.  Commercial lobstermen that fish area 1 (Gulf of Maine) can't land lobsters with a carapace length over 5", so they have a 5" gauge that they use.  It works perfectly for blue crabs.  Some dive shops also carry the gauge.  Different areas have different maximum lobster sizes, so make sure you get the max gauge for area 1.  Also, make sure you're getting the max gauge and not the minimum.

[Crabbyd]

https://kellerfishingsupply.com/product/heavy-duty-crab-measurer/

[ralphrepo]

So I've been looking around to find a good portable tool to bring me when I go out crabbing in MA.  Regulation is 5" I usually have a way I can check on it when out in the field, and then I double check when I get home - but I'd love to have a handy device better than a tape measure with while fishing.  The local tackle shop doesn't have any.  Amazon looked like they have some for down south --- but not much for us up here in MA!!!
If I had a 3d printer I assume I could print one!! but alas I don't

Thanks for any suggestions - before I go out and buy a type of caliper

Just mark your (whatever) with a sharpie indelible marker with whatever your state minimums are; when you take your crab out (either to throw it back or into the take home pile), hold it against your mark. If the crab size exceeds your marks, then into the keep pile. If not, back into the water. In fact, you can make a bunch of these marks all over your pots, boat, cooler, whatever, to keep a measuring source handy at all times.

[king crab 48]

https://kellerfishingsupply.com/product/heavy-duty-crab-measurer/

I made mine kind of on the same line as this one , except it looks like a winter windshield scrapper with about a 8" handle . I cut it out of plexiglass .