Hey guys, I'm wondering what y'all's set-ups are to bed fish?   Line choice? Rod length and action?  Reel ratio? Bait of choice?

hi shayne, ive been fishing for 50 years and i dont get to go Bed Fishing as much as i used to.. but when i do i have always used nothing but a small White Tube Bait.. toss it on bed and giggle it.. if no bite, throw in over and over til you irritate the bass into slamming it.. some times i toss it and drag Tube across the Bass just to make her mad.. i like the 3"-4" White Tube Bait cause you can see when she takes it and its small enough she sucks it in her mouth.. but be ready, sometimes she will spit it as fast as she takes it, cause she aint hitting it out of hunger, but to just get it out of the bed...

Thanks Mr Phillip!  My son got me into this fishing deal about 4-5 years ago.  Previous to that I had fished very little because of ball games, hunting seasons, dance recitals, etc...  but now that I'm in I'm All In!   Haha!  Everything I see about fishing I read but the problem with that is there is so much contradiction. An example is  line choice for bed fishing...some pros swear by braid and some swear by fluoro and to go even further the ones that swear by fluoro will disagree on line size. Some say 12# and some say a minimum of 20#.  Now I know it all depends on water clarity, pressure, and the situation (reeds, buggy whips, timber, or clear open bank) but it's a little confusing for a newbie like myself.   I'm just trying to make sense of it all and appreciate any help I can get. 

i'm not a big fan of braid for bed fishing; too visible.  fluorocarbon is nice but expensive.  my #1 choice is 20 lb trilene big game in the clear or dark green color.  it's cheap, and you can tow your boat with it.  i like to start out on a bed fish with a black/blue lizard (texas rigged) and see how they react.  usually i get about 75% of them with that.  if they don't want that, i switch over to a weightless watermelon fluke.  sometimes you just have to make them angry by bumping them with your texas rig; if they weren't paying attention to your lizard then a couple of good bumps will make them notice it.  at first, they will probably run away, but they will be back soon.  once you bump them and they don't run away, but instead flip around and look at it, it won't be long before they will pick it up.  i'm sure there are many ways to catch bed fish, but this is my way.  

Thanks James!  I have a couple rods spooled with 20lb Big Game I'm clear...  I keep my rods inside climate controlled storage but I have a tough time the first hour or so of fishing with the line having lots of "memory".  It tries to curl up until it gets wet and I throw it for about 45 min to an hour.  Does anyone else have this issue?

Shayne as far as line memory , this stuff actually works great for that.. i use 17 lb test line on all my reals.. not a fan of braid or flora, and i have caught bass all the way up to 11.5 lbs with no break problems