Anyone have any good tips on getting plastics through duckweed thats been blown right up against the shore by the wind and is thick and matted and dead? It's pretty thick and I'm using 50 pound braid?

typically i dont think duckweed is particularly thick or difficult to get through. You can throw 3/4 or 1 oz jigs into there without a problem i presume. You can try punching too... but i doubt that you would need to. How thick is the stuff?

Duck weed is small and doesnt create a problem for getting through. A 3/16oz weight will go right through it. If it is not duck weed, but something thinker, just upscale your weight until it breaks through. I punch with a 1 1/4 oz tungsten weight and it will break through most anything!

There are 2 parts of the C&O canal in MD that I fish that can get pretty thick with duckweed when the wind pushes it in certain areas so I can see why basslover is posting the question. I typically use 1/8oz and 3/16oz weights when throwing plastics in these areas but when the wind concentrates the duckweed I usually have to up the weight to 3/8oz or 1/2oz to punch through it as well. As Bass_Fanatic suggests, upscale your weight to get through. I typically start with the lightest weight I can that will get me through to keep the rate of fall as slow as possible. If that doesn't work, then I'll increase the weight even more to see if a faster fall will cause a reaction strike.

There are other times that I will go even lighter to keep the bait on top and just crawl it across that top. You'd be surprised by the amount of strikes you'll get this way as well. When I use this technique, I usually opt for stick baits or straight tail worms to limit the amount of drag I get. Shaking the bait in one place from time to time will help let the bass know where the bait is.

I've also experimented from top water soft plastics (Rage Tail Toads and Rage Tail Shads) as well. Surprisingly, the Toads seem to have more success in these cases for me. With the Shad, I don't get as much action out of the tail and the Toad. Just something else to keep in mind.

Hope this helps!