Many moons ago, I tied a bulky SF baitfish pattern for Tanzanian tigerfish that we simply referred to as the ‘Dinner Bell‘ because like Edward Truter said, the fly attracted big tigerfish like a gong announcing feeding time. I have since caught several predatory fish species on the Dinner Bell, including dusky kob, European pike, largemouth and smallmouth bass, but have noticed that I lack a slightly smaller version of this fly (and especially for European perch) in my fly boxes.

Although bass will sometimes take a surprisingly big fly, like a 17-18 cm Dinner Bell, there are times when they will reject it and then something smaller usually does the trick. This largemouth was holding in very shallow water and it engulfed a Breakfast Bell tied with a blend of olive, chartreuse, mackerel and white SF fibers.

The original Dinner Bell was tied on a Tiemco TMC 600SP 3/0 hook, one of the best hooks for Tanzanian tigerfish. I chose the Ahrex TP605 Trout Predator Light #2 hook for the smaller version (10 cm long), which I will simply refer to as the Breakfast Bell. This hook is nice and thin, and needle-sharp, so it easily penetrates the bony mouths of smaller predatory fish. Although I tied the Breakfast Bell specifically to target European perch with, I took it for a swim test near home and the largemouth bass latched on. Now to prove its merit on perch in the Netherlands…

Selection of Breakfast Bells tied on the Ahrex TP605 Trout Predator Light #2 hook.