Such is not the case. Whenever battleships have ambushed carriers, it has generally ended badly for the carriers. The exception is the Battle off Samar, but that was not so much because of the carriers. Simply put, Admiral Kurita lost his nerve and ordered withdrawal when he was on the cusp of victory. Some of his cruisers were blasting the carriers at less than 10,000 yard's range and closing. Had he used better tactics, and not lost his nerve, all three carrier task forces would have been sent to the bottom. Of course, that was not the only battleship versus carrier engagement, and the rest ended with sunk carriers and victorious battleships or battlecruisers.
The trick, especially these days, is a very good strategy. I think that if you can seperate a large part of your carrier forces and give out flase intel that they are the sole or main force and use them to engage the enemy, they can draw away aircraft which would otherwise detect the surface force (which necessarily would have carrier escort in most cases). You would have to find a way to avoid detection for as long as possible. Depending on the circumstances, you could ambush and then pose as a seperate enemy force, hug the coastline in the area of operations, or simply try to go straight for the carriers (worked for Kurita; despite US forces having radar and air patrols, he was not detected until he had opened fire with the Yamato's 18.1" guns). If you can get to close range of the carriers with a powerful surface force, especially one with battleships, say reactivated Iowas, you could wreak havoc amongst the carriers if you use sound tactics. The key is the element of surprise. Kurita had surprise, but poor tactics and his inability to handle the stress of the engagement prevented him from accomplishing his mission, despite the fact that Ozawa's decoy carrier force had worked to perfection.