For some confidence - go hit some spots on the Willamette anywhere from Salem to Portland - there's good bank access in places in Wilsonville, West Linn, Oregon City, Gladstone, Milwaukie, Portland, and in between that all hold fish. Take your three confidence baits - the ones you fish the most and get the best results with - and fish them there. Once you get a few fish on those - try other baits.
When I was getting serious about bass fishing - the first lure I always, always went with was a 3 inch grub on a 1/4 ounce round head jig, in white or chartreuse. I fished that lots on the Willamette and the Tualatin and caught fish. I'd also fish in-line spinners, mostly Rooster Tails back then from 1/16th ounce on up. And I'd fish rapalas a lot. Always could count on one of those three to get fish, if not all of them. Then I started doing that at Hagg - even though Hagg is the place I've fished the most of of all the places I've fished - it took a while before I got decent at catching bass with some consistency there. The water clarity that you attribute to actually catching fish - I cursed for a long time because it always seemed that if I could see the fish, they could see me, and would never eat. They're still that way sometimes - but it taught me to try to be more stealthy in my approach.
I haven't reached Shaun's stage yet where I am consistently searching for that "60%" fish - I'd be happy as a pig in feces if I was catching 2lb fish every outing, and 4lb fish with regularity. My newly acquired obsession with swimbaits may lead to that. But Shaun is right - you gotta try other places, and fish them enough, with enough confidence in your tackle and techniques, and you will get fish. Look for the obvious spots and fish them, but don't overlook the "meh" water - in a new place, you don't know what's under the surface. A technique I picked up from some great youtubers for reading the bottom in a new place, while bank fishing - is to use a heavy jig with a sensitive rod & line, then slowly drag that jig across the bottom, fan casting it to see what features, depths, and bottom types you're dealing with. Once you've done it a few times it's easy to tell grass from mud from sand from rocks, and you can use the count down method if you know the sink rate of your bait to determine depth.
Fish are fish, and they're going to key onto structure, into food, and they're going to follow their same basic habits from lake to lake, so think about how you would fish a particular spot on Hagg, and if you see a similar spot, fish it the same way. I always, always, start off looking for breaks / drops offs, cover (timber, grass), and points no matter where I'm fishing. Those are the first areas I look to fish, unless there are other blatant spots - such as docks or pilings nearby.
And some days we're just not meant to catch a fish despite the conditions being perfect. Sometimes luck is the overriding factor. Can't roll 7's all the time, right?
RE: St Louis Ponds in particular - I've noticed that each pond has a distinctly prevalent fish - at least every time I fish it. Some ponds are way better for panfish, others for bass, others trout. Never gave the catfish much attention there yet - I'm not much of a bait fisher anymore. I'd say that at those ponds, if you're hunting for bass and not getting bit in one pond, try the others until you find the pond where the bass are "on"
