You've been given some great advice above. Pitching is a strong technique BUT, it typically takes a lot of practice to get the cast down nicely. The underhand pitch motion fortunatly though is something you can practice on year round in your yard. I would suggest you attempt to keep your pitches to about the 20 foot range until you get it down well. Once you get the rythm of that cast, you can then try for more distance. Accuracy with pitching is generally very much enhanced once you get well with it. With enough practice, you'll be able to put a 1/2 oz jig between the edge of a dock and the boat moored to it from 40 feet away and, break the cobwebs which indicates nobody else has put a bait there in awhile.
I've been able to pitch with several different rods but for me, a flexible tip enhances my accuracy. I can pitch well with my 6'-6" heavy St Croix that I usually use for casting a jig but I lose accuracy due to not having enough tip action. The bait tends to go high and "lob" in rather than maintaining a nice low trajectory to the water. So, I usually rely on my old Team Diawa, Denny Brauer 7'-6" flipping rod. This is a MH, fast action that is spooled with 17# fluorocarbon. This rod gets the nod in most situations. I see in the recent Bass Pro Shops cataloug that Diawa has a "T" series rod at MH fast, which is supposed to replicate this old classic. At under $100, I'm going to be taking a look at it.
As for true flipping, although I use the Team Diawa set up, I have a 7'-11" St Croix Tournament Legend rod in a heavy power, moderate action that is a beast in the weeds. As our local waters have been having their aquatic vegetation decimated, I tend to only use this rod in certain situations. Candlewood, Lakeville, and Champlain will always see the big blue rod. One feature of this rod is the first guide is set about 3 feet from the reel seat while most other rods have their first guide set at about 2 feet. This plays a role in true flipping as your are usually going to grab the line before the first guide (though you can grab the line between the first and second guide for some extra distance). In flipping, you usually want the bait to fall straight after it hits the water and until you get REAL good at it, you are generally limited to an area about twice the length of the rod. So, I've got a nearly 8' rod, this gives me a 16' flipping radius. But, as I want my bait to fall verticlly, I have to take into account the water depth I'm flipping. IF I allow my bait to hit bottom (not always neccasary)and the water is 6' deep my flip is only going to be 2' to 4' from my rod tip. Which is only about ten feet from the boat. Now the good thing is, as long as your not stomping on the trolling motor, on and off, and the bass are buried in the grass, you can get really close to them without spooking them. Boat control becomes another learning issue with pitching and flipping.
Now, outside of the ability to use pitching and flipping for pin point accuarcy, these techiques also allow you to have increased sensitivity of your bait and, extreme control of the hook set and the fish once hooked due to the distance of line you have out. This brings me to your line of choice. Many folks prefer braid on their flipping set ups. Braid is simply awesome for slicing through the thick grass where your going to use this casting method but, it comes with a downfall also. My 7'-11" rod is VERY strong and so is the braid. Together, they have very little give. I was brought up to use a monster hook set. Generally, if I don't rock the boat with my hook set, I'm not satisfied that I stuck the fish well. Well, with using braid on that heavy rod, I was only hooking up on maybe 50% of my strikes. To counter that, I moved to 20 or 25# fluro and my hook up ratio went WAY up to about 90-95%. This simple change in line convinced me that MY set up, combined with MY hook set, was too much. The move to Fluorocarbon solved it. That little bit of extra give compensated for my hook set.
One last note on the long rod. For ME, a flipping/pitching rod with a jig or creature is awesome on a long cast and or deep water. The combination of little to no strech + the additional amount of line you can move with the long rod usually ensures a good hook set. The amount of big smallmouth on Candlewood working that deep weed edge, or dragging a 1 oz jig in 15 fow at Champlain, has brought a huge amount of fish to my boat that I don't think I would have stuck and boated with lesser tackle.
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