Hey Perfect g03,
I agree that a good fly fisherman will catch more fish than an average gear guy, but given a gear fisherman that has spent as much time perfecting his craft as you and I have for fly fishing, and he will out fish us most days. Sure we have him beat during a hatch, but any other time, a gear guy can do better, and lets not forget a gear guy can fish a fly too! we are frankly more limited by our gear selection, whereas a gear angler can quite literally cover any piece of water he or she desires. You and I must look for specific areas where our technique will be most effective. I too will outfish gear guys for trout 9 times out of 10, but had I spent the last 20 years working on gear technique, I'd certainly outfish you and me most of the time. I think fly fishing tends to bring out the passion in people though, so fly fisherman tend to perfect reading water, understanding hatches, and all the rest faster than gear guys.
Nice work swinging for steel this year! This was my first year trying, and It was hard. I finished winter with 3, haha. but again, we are limited by how much water we can fish. A gear guy can fish more water more effectively. and again, I am talking good gear men and women, not the weekend warrior.
I guess the point of my post was to really say the same thing as you. There isn't a magic fly, there is only getting better at fly fishing. This includes knowing what fly to use when, how deep to fish it, how to mimic the action of naturals, etc etc. Some days I will clean up on a skinny olive damsel pattern, and some days this pattern gets ignored, but a small black nymph will do the job.