I think that confidence plays a huge part in fishing. But there are many times when I've fished 'well' and not caught. Short of stalking a fish its difficult to say what fish are taking our baits, most of us we don't actually see the fish that we catch.
As a youngster I fished maggots pretty much exclusively, and venturing onto my local canal last summer for the first time in twenty years I took maggots and had a fish a cast, nine different species biggest fish a 1,5lb skimmer. After a few similar results I took only hemp and a few tares. A bloke on the next peg was fishing maggots and catching regularly. It took an hour and a half to get a bite but when they came the fish that I caught were on average 4oz bigger than those being caught on maggots, switching to tares brought bigger fish - it almost became a comedy sketch.
There is a lake on my local club ticket - it is shallow but full of good quality fish. I've had great days on Maggots & Casters; Meat; Paste and Expander Pellets. But I've also blanked on all of those baits fished on proven methods, its a few miles from home so its a decision for me as what bait to take but I tend to stick with one and that's on end to it.
Its good to try something new but if you are going to do it if possible ask a few questions to the locals or in a tackle shop prepare you bait properly and stick with it.
My point is, if I'm catching on one bait / method I'll tend to stick with it, changing feeding patterns and rigs is something that I'm loathe to do, I know that my methods catch fish and I have every confidence in them but dangling a pellet over maggot feed for a 'bigger' fish or hurling a speculative 'feeder' out isn't going to happen it just breaks my concentration.
Mark