For several years, the name Moulton has been synonymous with bass fishing at Mascoma High — and the first two members of the family to come through the program capped off their high school journeys with their best performance yet.
Cousins Cole and Ian Moulton finished 66th out of 314 teams at the Bassmaster High School Championship last month on Lake Hartwell in Anderson, S.C., and were the highest-placing team in the Northeast.
Cole’s father, Eric Moulton, coached the duo and is now in his third season leading the Royals. He said he began fishing competitively around 25 years ago, and Cole and Ian qualified for the national tournament all four years of high school. COVID-19 prevented them from attending after their sophomore year, but they competed in Tennessee in 2019 and 2021 and in South Carolina this year.
“The whole journey of coming up from the junior events, it’s been great,” Eric Moulton said. “I’ve learned as much about bass fishing in the last eight years with the boys as I learned in the first 25 to 30 years I bass fished by myself.
“These kids put so much time and effort into research and understanding what’s going on, and they all live to bass fish. They have a lot of knowledge, and they love to talk about it.”
Eric Moulton started a local fishing club near his Enfield home when Cole and Ian were young, and Cole participated in his first competitive tournament at age 7. Ian, who grew up in Canaan, was soon asked to join him, and they became partners upon starting high school.
The Moultons finished 212th at the 2021 nationals on Chickamauga Lake in Dayton, Tenn., and were determined to improve upon that in their final year. They had three days to pre-fish on Lake Hartwell to get a sense for where the biggest catches would be, followed by two days of competition.
“It can be hard sometimes, but the biggest thing is knowing that fishing isn’t a consistent sport, and you could be doing the perfect thing and you might not catch a fish,” Ian Moulton said. “It might just be the spot; it might be the color of your bait. You just have to keep persevering and (thinking) what we can do different or where can we go to put ourselves in a better situation to catch more fish.”
The cousins spent 75 to 100 hours, in Ian’s estimation, researching the lake map and techniques before arriving, which helped determine their choice of rods, reels and bait. Competition days began at 7 a.m. and lasted until 3 p.m., and each boat has a built-in tank for keeping the fish alive after they’ve been caught. The team that has caught the most combined weight among its five heaviest fish is the winner.
After struggling through much of the first day, Cole caught a big one that bumped the team into the top 60 at the time.
“We struggled the last two times we were (at nationals),” Cole said. “We wanted to do much better this time, and we had a pretty good plan after our practice days and we stuck to it. It meant a lot to have a decent showing.”
Cole is continuing his bass fishing career at Lander University in Greenwood, S.C. Ian is staying close to home and will begin his freshman year at Dartmouth College next week. Eric’s younger son, Tanner Moulton, is now a sophomore at Mascoma fishing for the Royals with fellow sophomore Payton Sargent.
Even though Ian has moved on from competitive bass fishing, he is still hopeful that the sport can continue to grow, especially in regions of the country where the climate makes it impossible to fish year-round.
“A lot of people I know love to fish recreationally, and they just don’t realize that they have the opportunity to do it at a competitive level,” Ian said. “It has given me a lot of determination, just because you have to continue trying. Sometimes there are tournaments where you don’t catch a fish until the last 20 minutes. You have to keep pushing through and you can’t give up, because if you get in your own head, you won’t catch any fish.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.