Well, your call, you have some options:
Speed tanked Cov Ops: You'd still have your probe bonus and cloak so if you fit as much speed with as low sig as you could, it might be able to hang on until your dps/heavy tackle arrives.
Speed tanked Bomber: You'd lose your probe bonus, but retain your cloak and no longer have the breaking cloak targeting delay to point. Same deal, low sig/max speed and you might be able to hold out.
Force Recon: You'd lose your probe bonus, but retain your cloak, however you'd have the targeting penalty but have considerably more tank. What race? Probably Arazu/Pilgrim/Falcon/Rapier .. in that order. Why? Well, Arazu comes in and points (with extra range point) and damps (to mitigate damage until backup arrives). Pilgrim comes in and points, and TDs to mitigate damage (on a turret ship, against a missile ship obviously not). Falcon comes in and points and then jams to mitigate damage (might be better/worse than the pilgrim depending on what you're finding), Rapier comes in.. and really has no advantage in a strictly tackle/hang on scenario.
Now, do you NEED to be cloaked (an advantage of the Cov Ops/SB/Force Recon)? I suppose not, you could be sitting off scan and doing your probing as many missioners are watching for probes (now that they appear on scan easily) instead of ships anyway. However, if they are watching for new ships on scan at least a cloaky can start his warp cloaked and decloak when he's close enough in warp to land with his targeting delay gone (unless it's a bomber) so as to only appear on scanner for a few seconds before he's there. So do you need the cloak? Meh, up to you. If you don't think so, then really just about any ship would work, if you do, my list should suffice I suppose.
I disagree with the order, I actually prefer an Arazu to tackle in a gang, due to its tackling bonus, but the Rapier is the second best tackling ship due to its bonus to webs, in addition to its relatively good tank, and good damage. If it were a solo ship, I prefer the Rapier to the other force recons due to its good tank and damage, that none of the other recons can match. That said, I still generally tackle in a Arazu, and solo in a pilgrim. Mostly because I can't fly a Rapier. (Here is my last kill with my Pilgrim:
http://nawti.evekb.co.uk/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=1717323, the guy was doing an incursion solo in the Damnation, took about 20 mintues to kill him though, and I had a rapier to help me.)
I don't like tackling with the Arazu alone though, because it has a crap tank when you fit it for support. (with sensor dampeners, points, and a prop mod in the mids. It can have a good shield tank, but doing that takes away form all the nice bonuses you get to sensor dampeners and warp disruptors.)
As for tackling in a covert ops, I have done it many times. The Helios is the best ship for it (IMHO), because it has the most powergrid, and can fit a MWD. My fit does 2600 m/s (IIRC) and I just kite the target at 17.5km, and hope they don't have warriors while the backup arrives.
I use the Buzzard with my alt because it works better for PVE type work (has more midslots and CPU, allowing you to fit a salvager in the highs, and AB, analyzer, and codebreaker in the mids, to go with the probe launcher and cloak int he highs.
Probably the best tackling ships with probe launchers and cloaks are T3, since you can do it with a relatively good tank, and relatively good damage, and relatively good speed. They are prohibitively expensive for me to use them though. I prefer hunting in my Pilgrim when I can't log my alt on to scout. If I can, I go in my Myrm, which is pretty similar, but has twice the tank and twice the DPS (but no neuts).