Leaky carb? Something else?

Is this mess a simple case of a stuck float?  I took the bowl off after seeing this. Gasket is pretty beat up so I cant reassemble until kit comes in next week.

A little history.  Maybe someone has other tips for me.

Boat has run great for 5 years.

Every now and then I check top speed, just to check.  Its down a couple MPH from 44ish to 42ish.  Wasnt to concerned, dont need 44 so I was going to wait for off season to look into it.

Then started loping at idle.  Did that 5 years ago. I fixed it by taking bowls off and cleaning out everything you can get to by doing that, which fixed the loping problem.

Did the same thing this time, but was much more hasty about it, which may be my problem.

After reassembly, loping was gone, high speed not affected.

But then, started running rough at all speeds and being a little resistant to start.  Thats when I took off flame arrestor and saw the fuel running all over the place.

Since the loss of high speed, I was also thinking fuel filter (inline, not cannister or the newer boats) might be worth replacing.  Not done yet.