I’m not sure that “the little Black dress” is just a girl’s best friend, it’s one of my favorites as well.

I was reminded again Sunday, when older brother and I endured another fruitless expedition; we’d tried everything else and I knotted on a battered black thing hoping it would reverse sagging fortune. One large fish rolled off the bottom to intercept -one brief throb of the rod, and the dance was over.

Why the black fly drew a lethargic fish when all else failed is unknown, but it adds to the notion that Black is somehow different.

Like the Little Black dress, black has a legion of followers. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a naturalist, impressionist, or surrealist – you’ve got a handful of black flies in your flybox, and at least one of them has made your “top 10 list.”

Black is singular lacking gradients or shades, and the flies we make from it use action words, not qualifiers. There’s no ambiguity in absolutes, and while “pale”, “medium”, and “rusty” work for other flies, black flies are syllables bitten off by teeth …

Black Leech. Black Gnat. Black Martinez, AP Black. Black is past seduction, it’s more “date rape”; failing light and you’ve tried those pastel bugs the other fellow mentioned – now you want a fly that makes Momma’s fry pan happy…

Nature sees it the same way, black doesn’t mess around, black hurts; Black Widow, Blackfly, Black eye, Black Belt, Black Death.

Black’s reputation is well deserved, a unique combination of underwater phenomenon and canny anglers whose series flies almost always have a black variant. It’s the universal color, as effective in salt as fresh, fished in conditions of “too bright” or black dark, and is the benefactor of a significant physics advantage versus all other colors.

Light rays (comprising colors of various wavelengths) passing through water penetrate only to certain depths. Water clarity plays a huge role in how far they can be seen, but the warm spectrum; red, orange, and yellow are the first colors to be filtered. Red is removed within the first 10′ of water, orange next, and yellow may persist to 30′, but beyond each boundary that color becomes unlighted and dark. Increasing depth removes all remaining colors in turn, until everything’s black.

Black is most visible against a light background, and considering the fly is often above the fish and sky makes a light backdrop – a black fly offers the best silhouette and can be seen at distance.

‘When it’s clear and bright, tie on a Silver Doctor. When dark and overcast, use a Black Doctor’

Coco Chanel is credited with the Little Black Dress, with unknown  influence from the Black Doctor, her favorite salmon fly immortalized by the above quote.

For the last 80 years – countless fellows have waited impatiently at the curb and been rewarded by her fashions, for the last couple of centuries many more have swung flies and applauded the absence of color.