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Need some advice: although I’ve been fishing these panhandle waters (SGI, Port St J, Cape San Blas) for >20yrs, how do you deal with copious floating grass, for example, after a major storm? Weed-less hooks often do not work, popping corks with bait are out of the question, even top lures are a no-go.
Just hang up the yak and wait another day until it clears? There must be some approach that the experts adopt.

You just have to deal with it or try to find areas where it's not as thick. Sometimes the floating grass will form a "weedline" and you can fish/drift along side of it. I've had good luck drifting along side of those floating weedlines in the past

I like to throw corks. I'm not sure why you say that is a no go, corks will catch most of the grass not your bait. Like said above just deal the best you can. Work your bait very slowed across the bottom.

Grass is frustrating. I usually throw a twitch bait and I switch to a popping cork rig when the grass is bad. I agree with Apalachee Inshore that I slow down my action a lot so I don't spend all of my time pulling weeds. On the plus side, we just caught a big cobia out from under a big grass mat.

Definitely corks when the grass is bad. I have had to move to another area trying to get less grass, it works sometimes.

This is a common problem on St Joe & here are a couple of suggestions given to me from Mr Presnell many years ago. Start fishing as early as possible - as the water warms during the day the grass problem increases. If the wind blew hard from the north the day before, expect the grass to be heavy on the south shorelines but not as bad on the east & west sides of the bay.

And as others suggested, often the grass will align in wind rows & you can cast in the empty lanes between parallel rows of grass. Gulp/soft plastic under a cork & popper style top water lures work for me in the floating grass while walk the dog & diving plugs give me the most problems. Tight Lines!

Other than making it harder to fish it's also bad on the outboard or at least it is on mine. Last weekend at the Hatch the grass was as bad as I've ever seen it. I had to stop several times and reverse ther motor to unclog the grass from around the water intake. This boat for some reason catches it more than any other boat I've owned.

I have modified a few hollow-body frogs that I use for bass fishing in topped-out hydrilla, and use them to fish right across the floating grass with either a walk-the-dog or steady retrieve. I like the more elongated frogs to use the walk the dog retrieve. I also remove the rubber/silicone skirt-material "legs" and replace them with the back half of Z Man Swimming Trout Trick bodies. You have to feel the weight of the fish before you set the hook.