Silicon in Through Hull Intake Strainer

[coleguy]

So I am relatively new to the boat maintenance world. I've grown up around boats and waterskied on a private lake with supplied boats my entire life. But last year as I moved away from home I decided to buy a boat myself. I bought a 94 205 prostar LT1. The last two seasons I have gone trouble free till a couple weeks ago. I blew up an impeller that ended up clogging up thermostats. I replaced them and checked all visible hoses for parts of the impeller. I ended up only finding 1 tiny little chunk in the upper 160 tstat. Where else should I check? Im nervous that I'm missing something that could be clogged. I also have noticed that I was intaking more water than I usually have. The automatic bilge is running every hour or so. However I can't locate the leak. I also noticed I have silicon hanging in the through hull intake strainer (ill include photos). Could this be the source of my leak? I don't think so since its on the hull side not the bilge. How hard is it to re silicon the strainer back to the hull? Do I just rip the hanging silicon out? Any advice is much appreciated!