Fishing for black bass in heavy cover

I'm thinking of getting a rod and reel for bass fishing in heavy cover for the Delta.  From info from the Internet, the rod should be 7'6" or 7'11"' med. heavy with a fast action.   The reel should have a gear ratio of 7.1.1.  The line should be 65# braid. 

Does anyone have any experience with this?  What are you using?

Thanks,

Yeah I use a similar set up for punching/flipping on the Delta and also as my frog set up some times.

I have an original Carrot Stix...I want to say in 7'6" H or XH...They have a little more parabolic bend and aren't as fast as a normal rod.  I have it with a Revo S and 65lb braid.  I like the Revo's in this situation as they provide a ton of drag and when I'm fishing this way I want my drag as tight as possible.  Buy a few 1 oz and 1 1/2 oz tungsten weights, flippin hooks, and some sweet beavers and punch away.

I use my swimbait rod for punching, its a 7'9" heavy, x fast, and curado with 65lb braid.  The longer rod will definitely help. 

Liverbass is spot on, tungsten weight and sweet beaver will get the job done.  I like to use paycheck punch skirts on my setup though. 

Sweet Beaver.....heh heh

I always used a flipping stick for fishing thick cover on the delta.  It is strong enough to pull bass out of cover and it works real nice for pin point accuracy with jigs.