Hi -- my family stayed at Funny Moose in late may/early June of this year. We chose Funny Moose because most of the other 'lodges' were so ridiculously priced I wasn't going to pay that much for sleeping -- since the main reason we were going was to fish. This was our first visit to Alaska and we were trying to get a family trip in before our teenage son, who turns 18 soon, got too busy to go anywhere with us and maybe to establish a trip that we could do together as adults. Figured even if it wasn't great -- and we found out we really didn't like Alaska, or salmon fishing, then we hadn't wasted tons of $$ on luxuries that we didn't need or want. Most lodges force you into a bunch of luxury and/ or dining costs that WE didn't want or need. We wanted basic accommodations and the ability to cook for ourselves while checking out the salmon fishing and Alaska in general. Funny Moose provided that. George was helpful and kind on the phone and answered all my questions cordially and didn't seem to mind that I called a couple of times before getting up there with questions. We were gong to come earlier in May but he said that the reason he didn't open until late May was that the salmon run was NOT dependable and he didn't want to rip people off who thought there were thousands of salmon to catch. Just wasn't so -- so we moved our vacation back a few days for this reason. I appreciated that honesty. We arrived and both George and Jim, his sidekick, were there and we were greeted appropriately. After we got settled in a bit, Jim gave us the run down on the week, when we were scheduled for fishing trips (2 salmon and 1 halibut) and where to be at what time. I was a bit shocked that we had to be in Homer (nearly 2 hour drive) by 6am for halibut and on the Kasilof River at 4 am for salmon the 2 other days but.....we are not fishermen so...we generally didn't know what to expect. I certainly didn't feel upset towards them about that for any reason.
REVIEW ON ACCOMMODATIONS: V. good. We had cabin #10 which was great. Full kitchen, 2 BR, & shower. Don't know about the other cabins but we were very pleased w/ ours.
REVIEW ON FISHING: Disappointed -- but not because of anything that the guys at Funny Moose did. I was a bit disappointed to learn that there were no salmon in the Kenai when we were there. Apparently they hadn't even made it to the lower Kenai by late May/early June. I was hoping we could do some bank fishing at the lodge on the days that we weren't out w/ a guide. Maybe they eventually get up that far but all the salmon fishing was on the Kasilof river during the time we were there. And even with 2 guided fishing days (and I assume George had to pay ~$150 each for the 3 of us for each day on a guided trip) we caught NO salmon. My son had a nibble on the first day, and I apparently had a nibble on the 2nd outing (fishing the afternoon tide) since our guide chastised me for not recognizing it. Have to say that - even though salmon fishing apparently requires some special tactics (since they are swimming upstream in a tide influenced river) I guess guides are required if you don't know how to do this. One of our guides, Zac, was very very confident and self sufficient kind of guy -- but still young enough that he doesn't always get the client/customer thing I guess. My son said he felt uncomfortable all day because he was so hard to talk to. He chastised me in a rather condescending way for not 'bobbing' at the right pace and by the end of the day it made me think it may have been about some disdain for women because no one else in the boat was doing any better than me but he didn't speak down to them at all. Hmm. Oh well. But -- his overconfidence was a bit tempered (although he said that NEVER happens to him....) since we caught no salmon the whole day and people were catching them all around us. Not sure what the problem was there. The halibut fishing was only unpleasant because the weather turned out to be horrible that day (the only day of the week) and the water was so rough everyone had trouble staying in the boat much less fishing. But, somehow we ended up with our limit on halibut (with a little help from our friends Allison and Mark, and JIm I think) so - can't complain about that. But we were about to come home with NO SALMON until Jim volunteered some from his own personal stash - I guess because he felt bad about it. So, we did end up with 35 lbs of halibut and cod, and a few lbs of salmon. Capt Lou also did a great job of processing our fish and got it packed up for our return flight. The fish was still rock hard when we arrived back in TN some 30 hours after leaving Funny Moose. He also knows so much about the area...and cool places to see. Plus he's just good company...as was Jim.
So -- no real complaints about Funny Moose lodge and I appreciated what everyone tried to do to make our stay a good one. Would return again --- if my family ever wanted to try salmon fishing again. Next time we won't talk so much smack before we go though! Now we owe all our friends a big salmon dinner.
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