December is a prime month for taking Canada geese in Nebraska -- and it can also be gangbusters for greenheads. So says Dr. Mark Vrtiska, waterfowl program manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in Lincoln.

"Duck hunting success depends on where you're hunting," said Vrtiska. "Most years the small lakes and ponds are frozen, but if you go to open water, hunting can be excellent."

If the small waters freeze over, the birds will move to the streams and large reservoirs in the state. The Platte, North Platte, South Platte, Missouri, Republican, Loup, Cedar, Calamus and Blue rivers can offer some satisfying action. Reservoirs such as McConaughy, Harlan County, Enders, Sutherland, Elwood, Sherman and Lewis and Clark all host mallards as well as Canadas in December as well as January.

According to Vrtiska, a tally of Nebraska waterfowl hunters during the 2004-05 season showed an estimated total of 21,000 duck hunters, while 16,000 reported hunting Canadas. The hunters reported bagging an estimated 167,000 ducks and 62,000 Canadas.

Snow goose hunting success during the regular season has dropped off significantly over the past 15 years. Thousands of birds once staged along the Missouri Valley at sanctuaries such as the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, east of Blair, and at the Schilling Wildlife Management Area, near Plattsmouth. Today snow goose use at Schilling is almost nil, and numbers are way down at DeSoto.

The snows are staying longer in Canada and the Dakotas, Vrtiska reported, and when weather does push them south, most fly past Nebraska.

No story on Nebraska waterfowl hunting would be complete without a word from 88-year-old Ralph Kohler. The Tekamah waterfowler has hunted the Missouri River Valley since boyhood, and he plans on hosting hunters this fall in the pits he built around a small lake not far from the river.

"Last year our duck hunting was fair in November, but there just weren't many around in December." Kohler said. "The snow geese are overflying us, but we are shooting good numbers of big Canadas.

Not many of the hundreds of duck and goose hunters that Kohler has hosted over the years know that he and his wife, Dorothy, 87, were named to the Sports Afield All-American Trap Team. Indeed, Kohler's expertise at waterfowling and scattergunning has impressed a lot of people -- so much so that he was inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame last August, joining luminaries like Bass Pro Shops' Johnny Morris, Kansas City TV personality Harold Ensley, boat builder Forrest Wood, B.A.S.S. founder Ray Scott, and many others.

Lincoln resident Mike Cunningham, who grew up in Tekamah, today runs his own commercial hunting operation, the County Line Hunt Club -- (402) 328-8553 -- between Dwight and Bee. "As I grew up, I hunted with Ralph as often as I could," he recalled. "Once I started hunting on my own, I found I was a Kohler disciple. My waterfowling efforts today are a mirror image of what I learned from him -- because his teachings work.