How To Use Cunjevoi?

[zephi]

Just wondering... how do you use cunjevoi? One day when I went fishing I reeled up one of these things in the photo... To me, it looked like a really big cunjevoi. (I've seem cunje growing on rocks and pylons but haven't ever tried using em).

So I thought I'd cut it up and examine it, see whether it's a good bait or not.

Well the inside is soft and squishy... the white part is quite tough.... How do you use it? It is so soft inside, it breaks apart really easily. Can't cast with it, and dropping it down, little fish come and eat it. The white part is really tough, but I didn't try using that. Is that the part I was supposed to use and not the guts inside?

forgot to add... the rough dimensions were.. 20cm long, 15cm wide. shaped like a football. Covered in barnacles, and weed.

Edited June 1, 2009 by zephi

[A.dawg]

Not the best bait i will only use them in winter for drummer and blackies and have them as spare bbait incase i run out of fresh squid yakkas etc. All i know is yakkas slimmeys gars and all the bait fish hate cunji u hav a piece infront of them they wont even come near u hav a piece of pillie they slam it. But they are very good for drummer and blackfish especially when your avoiding the pickers like yellowtail and slimmeys.

But on the other had sweep and leatheries love them and it can be very frustrating trying to get em off the hook every time when your trying to get the blackkies on the bottom.

Use fresh green weed best bait as nothing but blackfish take em. on occasions you cant get your hands on any use cunjii.

[LittleNoah]

judging by the description and photo given I don't think it was cunji you had. It's not that big and it's a purple/maroon/dark red colour, and also very tough, doesn't fall off the hook like you say.

[fibbo]

I have never picked up a washed up cunjevoi before

[zephi]

judging by the description and photo given I don't think it was cunji you had. It's not that big and it's a purple/maroon/dark red colour, and also very tough, doesn't fall off the hook like you say.

well it was some kinda water squirt. ill try and get a cunjevoi next time i see one

[Ray R]

Yeah mate that is a chunk of Cunje, good bait for all kinds of fish, I used to cut at or around the base of it

and expose the reddie coloured flesh , slide my finger down beside it and dig it out of its casing,

this is where I find the rubberery nipples as this is the part I like to use , you can feed it onto a

hook and it stays on, I use the softer mushy bit as berley.

In saying all this though I generally use it when rock fishing for Drummer or Groper..

Cheers...

[luderick59]

that is cungie at the top there are two harder valves to put your hook into use your finger to extract meat from caseing

peter

[LittleNoah]

OK then, I stand corrected. Just never seen cunji as big as described (20cm long and 15cm wide) nor have I had trouble with it coming off the hook when casting.

Is there maybe different variations of it?

[zephi]

basically what I did was remove all the guts, they all came out and all that was left is the white crunchy bit.

So was I supposed to use the white bit as well? As for those tubes, I didn't really look closely at that, only the guts stood out lol.

As RayR said, those rubbery nipples, is that white flesh as well?

Yeah I used it hoping to land a few drummers. I can see em swimming around. But they ignored the bait

[diver1]

cunjie is awesome bait 4 drummer, groper.

[Smitty]

Cunji is great bait for most rock species......imho.

I cut the whole thing in half (from the top) and remove the cunji from the rubbery case. If you look at the top of the case you will see the two distinct "nipples" (where it squirts from if you squeeze it), cut down so you cut both of these in half from the top. When you open the critter up it will then have two tough bits at the top of each half. Run your fingers around the soft bits, free it up and pull the two "half nipples" from the case. You should be left with a nice juicy bait with two tough nipple bits on the top (if its large you can cut this in half so you have a nipple on each bit and you get four baits from each cunji).

Put the hook through the tough bit once or twice and then bury the hook in the soft bit... Drummer cant resist it.

And dont waste the juice or empty cases either - add these to your burley.

Dont try to cast it too far, just lob it (lightly weighted) in a nice wash and Bobs you uncle.......just be prepared for all sorts of ooglies in amongst the Drummer, Blackfish and Groper.

Give it a go, its worth it.

Cheers,

Smitty...

[zephi]

Cunji is great bait for most rock species......imho.

I cut the whole thing in half (from the top) and remove the cunji from the rubbery case. If you look at the top of the case you will see the two distinct "nipples" (where it squirts from if you squeeze it), cut down so you cut both of these in half from the top. When you open the critter up it will then have two tough bits at the top of each half. Run your fingers around the soft bits, free it up and pull the two "half nipples" from the case. You should be left with a nice juicy bait with two tough nipple bits on the top (if its large you can cut this in half so you have a nipple on each bit and you get four baits from each cunji).

Put the hook through the tough bit once or twice and then bury the hook in the soft bit... Drummer cant resist it.

And dont waste the juice or empty cases either - add these to your burley.

Dont try to cast it too far, just lob it (lightly weighted) in a nice wash and Bobs you uncle.......just be prepared for all sorts of ooglies in amongst the Drummer, Blackfish and Groper.

Give it a go, its worth it.

Cheers,

Smitty...

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanations, that helps clear things up on how to cut them open and use them.

As you can see I cut mine horizontally. with the 2 nipples on one half and the other half is the bottom.

Saw the tubes leading to the nipples but didn't think it was good bait ..lol