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Moose Hunting In Alaska
Moose hunting in Alaska is becoming tougher every year due to increased pressure from predators across the state and increased hunting pressure close to Anchorage. Willow Air is based just north of Anchorage, and has taken moose hunters to far western Alaska for over 30 years and has dedicated float planes based in McGrath during moose season. We no longer take any moose hunts our of Willow; due to the fact the success rate was so low. We try to tell hunters, whoever you choose to go hunting with, do not fly to the bush from the Anchorage area. Sure it is cheaper; you can fly into Anchorage and hop in a bush plane and be hunting right away. You do not have to spend more time and money taking a commercial flight into another town before you get on the bush plane and go hunting. it’s easy to do and there are many large air taxis based in Anchorage competing for the same areas to hunt. That’s why hunting is so poor anywhere that is reachable from Anchorage in a bush plane. In my opinion, all those areas were hunted out years ago. As an air taxi, it would obviously be easier to hunt out of our home base of Willow. |
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Our pilots and ground crew live in Willow. By moving our airplanes to McGrath, we increase our expenses. When we move to McGrath for the month of September, we have to supply housing for them. You might say, why McGrath? Good question, since we have no facility there, it is quite a commitment on our part. We go there because it is the closest town to what we have found to be the best moose hunting in Alaska. It is also a friendly town with excellent accommodations. If you are a serious hunter and want a trophy moose, you should consider Willow Air. No one will work harder to make your hunt an enjoyable experience. |
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| WHICH IS THE RIGHT HUNT FOR YOU We offer two different types of hunts. Our most popular is our fixed camp hunt. We drop you off on a stretch of river where we can take off and land with a full load. You set up your camp and hunt from that spot with a boat and motor. You can realistically hunt and approximate five mile radius from that spot. There are a lot of oxbow lakes and sloughs off the river that are excellent hunting and water is always close, making your packing much easier than carrying moose meat out long distances on your back. What makes this hunt popular is that you are in one spot long enough to find where the moose are frequenting, and spend time hunting and calling them and figuring out their patterns. You also only have to set camp up one time. You can hunt until dark every night and come back to a comfortable camp. You can also leave camp at daylight without having to break down camp before you leave. The most important advantage is that we can land there any day and pick up your moose or leave your supplies. That is what we are famous for. Our service and ability to do more than just drop you off and pick you up. |
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The second type of hunt we offer is a float hunt. Many people insist on a float hunt. A float hunt starts at one point and ends at a designated point down river. Usually between the two points we are unable to land and check on you. The advantages of a float hunt are that you are able to hunt much more area and sometimes an area that is less hunted. The disadvantages are that you have to set up and breakdown camp several times, usually in the dark. We are not able to land and take out your moose when you kill it. You must haul it with you for the entire float. Moose floats are 60-120 river miles. Floats can be very rewarding, but you must be able to stop and hunt for a couple of days when you see good moose signs; not just float all the time hoping to float up on a moose and kill it from the raft. But if you want to hunt this way, you must break down camp in the dark and be floating at daylight; then float only a couple of hours, camp during the day, and start floating again about 2 hrs. before dark and float until it's too dark to shoot. Then set up camp in the dark. This is an excellent way to hunt, but it is not for everyone as it can be very physically challenging.
We are happy to book whichever type of hunt you like and would be happy to discuss the pros and cons of both with you. These hunts are based on a minimum of two people and are on a 11 day schedule with day 1 and day 11 being fly in/out of the bush days and 9 full days of hunting. Either of these hunts is at a cost of $3695 per person with a two-person minimum. Boat & Motor, or raft may be rented from Willow Rentals for $300 per person.