It was a banner fall season for the bass fishing programs at Mascoma Valley Regional High School and Lebanon High School.
Mascoma, led by its senior tandem of Tanner Moulton and Peyton Sargent, successfully defended its crown at Lake Winnisquam in early October, winning the program’s second consecutive state title. Mascoma caught eight fish weighing a total of 21.4 pounds, a full pound clear of second-place Souhegan.
“It’s just a really good feeling that we can bring home another banner to our school,” Sargent said. “It’s also good to know that our future fishing program is set up to do well.”
Lebanon, after moving past the qualifying round for the first time in program history, notched a third-place finish. Lebanon’s duo of senior Hannah Giguere and freshman James Barkley IV caught seven fish for 17.2 pounds, more than two pounds clear of fourth-place Milford.
“We had a good season,” Raiders coach Mike Anikis said. “Of course, there’s a lot of, ‘Would’ve, should’ve, could’ve,’ and I think we could have moved up to second, but I don’t think there’s a way to beat Mascoma at the tournament. They had a great day.”
Success at these tournaments, just like in so many other sports, comes down to a few key decisions throughout the day, Anikis said. In the Royals’ case, success hinged on a couple pivots in location before the smallmouth bass they were looking for began to bite.
Mascoma’s morning started especially slow after an opposing team beat Moulton and Sargent to the pair’s intended fishing spot. Once the two anglers found a new location, the bites were few and far between. Moulton, a 2024 Bassmaster High School All-American, estimated that “every 150 casts, we would get a bite.” The Royals opted to leave the area as a mental reset. The shift also allowed the spot and fish to “settle down,” Mascoma coach Eric Moulton, Tanner’s father, said.
The pair was patient, bouncing around to a couple spots before making their return to the location they started the day. After catching a 3¼ pound smallmouth bass, the pair’s dwindling confidence was replaced with a newfound fire, Tanner Moulton said. Combine that with a weather shift — the wind picked up, the temperature rose and the sun came into fuller view as the day progressed — and it all began to click for the pair.
“Once we caught a couple fish and put some clues together, we figured out that the fish really wanted a reaction-type bite,” said Sargent, who also played for Mascoma’s state-championship football team this fall. “We started to do some more fast twitches on our presentations and then the smallmouth just started to hit.”
Equal in importance to the tactical adjustments throughout the day is the compatibility of a team’s two anglers. Playing off each other’s strengths and weaknesses is key, but so too is the ability to be deferential at times, to allow one angler to be in the driver’s seat, Eric Moulton said. It’s a long day out on the water in a confined space, so there’s an art to maintaining the peace and staying focused, Anikis added.
Coaches can send up to four anglers out on the water during a day, swapping one pair for another midway through the competition, but the Royals and Raiders each opted to send only two anglers.
For Lebanon, Anikis said he could “count on losing 40 minutes” of fishing if he were to swap anglers, so he rolled with Barkley and Giguere, a dynamic duo in their own right. Fishing together over the summer, the pair won team-of-the- year at the New Hampshire Bass Nation high school national qualifier and earned a bid to national championship in 2025.
Sometimes it’s as simple as recognizing that some kids fish better together than others, Anikis said, which is the case for Barkley and Giguere.
“They know if the other one is not catching fish, it’s because that bait’s not working, not because they’re not doing the technique right,” Anikis said. “So they have confidence that they can try different baits because the other one tried and it didn’t work or did work.”
On the heels of the program’s first podium finish, Anikis said he’s hopeful that Barkley and Giguere’s success motivates other team members. Adapting to the “vertical conditions” of fishing on a boat and learning to be a finesse angler, which is central to success in New England, Anikis said, are central to growth next season.
“Success breeds success,” he said.
After fielding a team of three anglers during the 2023 season, Eric Moulton’s numbers quadrupled this season. The program’s recent success, highlighted by a pair of third-place finishes preceding the back-to-back state championships, has seen numbers increase, a rise that coincides with burgeoning popularity across the state.
The elder Moulton said when he first started coaching, a typical day would see 8 to 12 teams out on the water. The 11 teams that participated in the state championship nearly surpassed that total — let alone the 32 teams that competed in the qualifiers at Lake Winnipesaukee.
It was a challenge to keep everyone happy, especially when the team’s underclassmen, including six freshmen, were not going to displace his experienced senior duo, Eric Moulton said, But with his son and Sargent graduating, the door opens for new anglers to make their mark.
“I have some ideas,” Moulton said of the program’s future. “I know a lot of the other coaches around the state really well, and some of the ones with the bigger programs do some challenges and skill-based stuff to select those stronger anglers for travel (competition). … I’ve challenged the team to see how they want to manage it moving forward.”
Alex Cervantes can be reached at acervantes@vnews.com or 603-727-7302.