Anyone ever epoxied a screen over the inlet hole? I picked up some grass leaving a party this weekend in about 3.5' of water. Second time in a month I've had to jump in the water with a coat hanger and clean out the hole.

It may not work.
Depending on how fine the screen is it may actually block water from getting past when running at high speeds. Probably anything above idle speed may cause overheating.

BTW just about everyone here that has low water pickups has trouble with debris clogging the intakes.

I had low water pickups with one single large hole. Frequently would clog up with seaweed. Replaced a lower halfs with Max Machine units that have three smaller holes instead of one large hole. Did not have any problems with clogging this past weekend in thick seaweed.

I had mine welded closed and redrilled with 5 holes along with groves for the holes. Like the CLE.Never again to have a weed problem.

Low pick ups are a ***** in lakes, I ended up using the hole to feed the drive shower and installed a offshore pickup from Fred at Trick Marine. No problem since, also I don't clog the engine with sand anymore.