I have decent scales, but have never invested in a good culling system.
What's the best way to go without braking the bank?
Thanks!

EW

The rapala tough screen is what most guys use. I think they are around $40. Weigh your fish lock the weight in and touch slot 1-8. When you get 7 you just replace the smallest fish by touching it's number. Really simple. When I purchased mine I thought it would be a lot more money but I love it.

^^what he said, and a culling board in case a couple are close.

Academy has culling floats. The ones I've seen are big floats for bass and too big for crappie IMO. Academy also has a culling system with colored rubber tubes and a small dry erase card. The tubes have small clamps on the end. I don't like the clamps as they tend to come lose. If you don't use the Rapala system, you'll need a small dry erase board and marker to keep the weight written down. Or a small pad and pen for numbering fish. The dry erase system is a problem in the rain and I had to keep mine in a zip lock bag.
The Rapala system works better. Most are accurate within a few hundredths of a certified scale. Also has eight small red floats that attach to the fish to correspond to the number on the screen. Helps find that smallest fish when you need to cull. The clamps that were attached to the float didn't last long and I replaced those with brass safety pins. Those will stay attached to the fish. The small red floats are just the right size and don't hamper the fish's ability to swim in the live well. Keep some extra AA batteries in the boat for the scale. And there's eight markers for eight fish in case one dies.
Another good scale is made by America Weigh Scale and available on line. Another good accurate scale. Models are SR-5 and SR-20 and run on AAA batteries.

fish culling balance bar

Although I have several digital scales from my days on the dark side - LOL, I got the touch screen Rapala system with the 8 floats that others have been talking about. GREAT SYSTEM!

That's good to hear Todd... I just ordered one!

This ^

How does one calibrate the Rapala culling system. We used Crappie Quest's unit at Crappie Fest and it was way off from what the club's scale was. Our fish in the boat weighted 1.71 and 1.76 but once at the club's scale weighted 1.84lbs and 1.83LBS?

Not sure they can be re-calibrated. I'd find some place that certifies scales and ask if they can certify the scale. I think cost is about $25-35.

My hand scale is very accurate when compared to my meat scale at home, it is always within .02 even after all day of fishing, till the time I get home and weigh them on my meat scale.

We weighed two fish at the Crappiefest, one was a 1.49 on my hand scale and it weighed 1.56 on the club scales. The other fish was a 1.96 and it weighed 1.98 on the club scales?????

I think the basket and any additional water, makes up the difference. Just my thought.