Fashioned a suction head from old pipes for my property's drainage ditch

My backyard drainage ditch gets packed with silt after heavy rains, so I tried a DIY fix. I used scrap PVC pipes and a spare pump to make a basic suction setup. It moved some mud, but leaves and twigs jammed the intake every few minutes. I spent more time clearing blocks than actually dredging. This mess got me thinking about real dredge work in messy water. How do you guys deal with constant clogging in shallow spots? I'm thinking of adding a filter screen, but won't that slow things down too much? Any tips from your own jobs would help.