Moose are very heat sensitive. The reason bulls are darker(in my experience) than cows is that they spend more time in deeper shade/cooler temps. Probably due to their greater body size and heavier body-fat buildup in late summer and early fall, they need the thermo-regulation.
Consider slip-hunting (some call it still-hunting) thru the densest evergreen or mature forest around, from a couple hours after daylight to dark. They are bedded then, unlikely to come to calls before near (or often after) dark. You can call, and they will hear and respond - but not until near or after dark, when it cools and the light dims. They are unlikely to be found up feeding during the day, unless there is a break in a rain storm,and or deep in cover. Sometimes between 11 and 1 or so they may get up for a brief feed. In heavy cover. I've killed several feeding bulls suchwise.
I've had my best luck calling from pre-dawn to two hours after, and a few minutes before evening dark. Making mild noises - such as breaking a few branches and a mild bull grunt or two - for a few minutes in mid-afternoon, then shutting the hell up often brings in inquisitive moose right at dark. Or after. There is nothing like a bull moose raking his antlers 15 feet from your sleeping bag in the blackest dead of night to get your attention! BTDT.
Tall/Mature aspen/birch or tall alder also provides the required cooling effect for bedding areas. Hilltop/higher ground wooded areas more or less surrounded by bog/lake/water are prime bedding and mating areas. During the pre-rut and rut itself, this is where you will find the "harems". The cows chose the area, by the way. The bull(s) - well you know how males are......:)
Read up on white-tails- they are remakably similar in their habits, and there is a lot of published white-tail stuff- less so on moose.
If you are hunting an "any-bull" area, when the antlers come out of the grass.....
I enjoyed about 15 years of such slip-hunting on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, targeting "islands" of unburned spruce amidst a burn area to slip hunt thru. I had 100% success ratio, averaging 4 days of hunting per season, compared to a 20% success ratio for the area, but then I always hunted at least a mile off-road. The moose used the unburned "islands" as daytime bedding areas. And they didn'ty like road traffic.
Then the second growth grew up, the moose population dropped to current date to about 15% of the peak, and F&G imposed some questionable antler restrictions - most recently on a complete lack of accurate data. I.E. What they can see on their airplane surveys over now heavy cover. (they can't see chit). Their bull/cow ratios are way off, IMO from my ground observations and for several other reasons. I've actually infiltrated a pre-rut group of at least 4 bulls (probably 5 with about 10 cows present. F&G claims there is only about 1 bull per 10 cows out there.. (With a couple more hours, I probably could have got me a date.....
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A few years back their arial survey sfound not one "mature bull" (50 inches or over) in the hundreds of squre miles of that survey unit. In the two square miles I've hunted for over 30 years (two places, about one square mile each, about 5 miles apart) in this survey area, I knew of/had seen during hunting season, four such bulls- and I'm pretty certain there were that many more. They are smarter than me, and I didn't kill a one....
It's gotten a lot tougher to kill a legal bull in that area, and my success ratio has slipped to about one kill in 3 or 4 years years - but I have not hunted there in 2 years, living where I do now.
Still- the moose pop. isn't being hurt by F&G errors in math, so what the hell.... and it's discouraging other hunters for that area, which is all good with me once I resume hunting there in a year or two.
I will no longer hunt bulls in rutting season - I now quit after about Sept 20 - even when the season allows(like where I live now). The chances of getting an stinky/inedible one, or one with just disagreeable flavor - and yes I have - are too great. I will no longer waste- or choke down- such an incredible animal.
Unlike white-tails, moose rutting season is pretty much standardized throughout all of NA. Late Sept into mid October. I will no longer shoot any bull between Sept 20 and October 15.
Cows, where legal, at any time, are a whole 'nother story....
