Florida’s Hinton Earns Victory in Co-Angler Division

PALATKA, Fla. (Sept. 14, 2026) – Boater Cody Morgan of Green Cove Springs, Florida, caught a total of 10 bass weighing 61 pounds, 9 ounces, over two days to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Super Tournament Presented by T-H Marine at the St. Johns River . The tournament was the fifth and final event of the season for the BFL Gator Division Presented by Merman’s Revenge. Morgan earned $3,920 for his victory.

Morgan had a plan mapped out for the two-day event, and it focused on big largemouth on shell flats.

“On Saturday I started off on a school of big ones I’d been saving for a while,” Morgan said. “All of them were between six and 10 pounds. My first cast was a 6-pounder, and on my second cast I caught a 9-7 and I picked up the trolling motor and left. I wanted to save them for Sunday. There were a bunch of them still in there.”

Morgan’s two early bass came on a Zara Heddon Spook and a wakebait.

Morgan said he made a long run south to a shell flat that had groups of three to four fish roaming on it, where he added two 5-pounders and a 4-pounder using a Z-Man Original ChatterBait, a Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap and a Carolina rig in 4 feet of water. He finished his first day of competition fishing docks and never culled up.

Sunday morning, Morgan returned to the spot he had saved the previous day only to find the fish were not there.

“There were like two there and they wouldn’t bite,” Morgan said. “I went to my other spot and caught a 3-11 on my first cast. Then I went an hour without any bites. I had nine minutes left in my (forward-facing sonar) period and I saw a giant one. She was sitting on the bottom. I threw my ChatterBait at her, because that’s what I had in my hand, and she chased it. I threw at her again and caught her literally hovering it over her. It weighed 12-11 on my scale.

“I had been down in the dumps, but when I caught that 12-pounder it gave me hope,” Morgan added.

Morgan said he then went through a lull and only had two bass at noon. Then he went through a quick flurry and continued to pound the shell bar to grind out a limit to finish the tournament and secure the win.

“This is just unbelievable,” Morgan said. “I got second place last year to my best friend. At the beginning of the tournament I told him I was coming for him. And this year he finished second. So, we swapped places. And I’ve worked for this. I’ve busted my butt for this.”

The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:

1st:        Cody Morgan, Green Cove Springs, Fla., 10 bass, 61-9, $3,920
2nd:      Parker Stalvey, Green Cove Springs, Fla., 10 bass, 51-11, $1,980
3rd:       Dylan Quilatan, Windermere, Fla., 10 bass, 45-12, $1,010
4th:        Tracen Phillips, Lake Placid, Fla., 10 bass, 44-2, $840
5th:        Austin Black, East Palatka, Fla., 10 bass, 42-11, $720
6th:        Coltyn Morris, Crescent City, Fla., 10 bass, 41-5, $690
7th:        John Mobley, Macclenney, Fla., 10 bass, 35-10, $670
8th:        Tyler Sheppard, Yulee, Fla., nine bass, 33-9, $640
9th:        Fred Chivington Jr., San Mateo, Fla., 10 bass, 25-9, $610
10th:     Jeremy Barbour, Lucedale, Miss., 10 bass, 22-4, $580

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Although Morgan caught the 12-pounder on Sunday, he also earned the Berkley Big Bass Boater award on Day 1 with his 9-pound, 7-ounce bass worth $300.

Danny Hinton of Saint Cloud, Florida, won the co-angler division and the top prize of $1,810 Sunday after bringing six bass to the scale that totaled 17 pounds, 12 ounces.

The top 10 co-anglers finished:

1st:        Danny Hinton, Saint Cloud, Fla., six bass, 17-12, $1,810
2nd:      Preston Williams, Tallahassee, Fla., six bass, 17-7, $940
3rd:       Adrian Davies, Cocoa, Fla., five bass, 15-7, $505
4th:        Dillon Reid, North Port, Fla., four bass, 15-3, $570
5th:        Ethan Harrell, Tarpon Springs, Fla., six bass, 15-1, $360
6th:        Taylor Harris, Haines City, Fla., six bass, 11-10, $345
7th:        Sean Kelley, Lake City, Fla., six bass, 11-9, $340
8th:        James Gallagher, Okeechobee, Fla., four bass, 11-4, $320
9th:        Demond Jenkins, Plant City, Fla., four bass, 10-7, $310
10th:     Chase Brumfield, Middleburg, Fla., three bass, 9-9, $290

Dillon Reid of North Port, Florida, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award after landing a 7-pound, 6-ounce bass worth $150.

With all five events in the division now complete, boater Dylan Quilatan of Windermere, Florida, won the 7 Brew Gator Division Presented by Merman’s Revenge Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 1,345 points and earned the $1,000 prize, while Jordan Elmore of St. Petersburg, Florida, won the Gator Division Presented by Merman’s Revenge Co-Angler of the Year race with 1,262 points and earned the $500 payout.

The top 45 boaters and co-anglers in the division based on point standings, along with the five tournament winners of each qualifying event, will qualify for the Oct. 8-10 BFL Regional tournament on Lake Eufaula in Eufaula, Alabama. Boaters will fish for a top award of a new Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard worth $50,000, while co-anglers will compete for a top prize of a new Phoenix 518 pro with a 115-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, worth $33,500.

The 2026 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. The top 45 boaters and co-anglers from each division, along with the five qualifying tournament winners, will advance to one of six BFL Regional tournaments where they are competing to finish in the top seven, which then qualifies them for one of the longest-running championships in all of competitive bass fishing – the BFL All-American. The 2027 BFL All-American will take place June 5-7, at the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes in Kissimmee, Florida, and is hosted by Experience Kissimmee.

Proud sponsors of the 2026 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7 Brew, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, Black Buffalo, BUBBA, Cigars International, Epic Baits, Grizzly Nicotine Pouches, Mercury, MillerTech, Mystik Lubricants, OFF! Deep Woods, Onyx, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Phoenix Boats, PiranhO2, Power-Pole, Precision Sonar, Suzuki Marine, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, VOSKER, YETI and Yuengling.

For complete details and updated tournament information, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular BFL updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF5’s social media outlets at Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing
Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery, Outdoor Channel, VICE, World Fishing Network, RFD-TV, Game & Fish TV and Rumble, and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.