Fairbanks Landing

Fairbanks Landing is an 8,000 acre Fish and Wildlife Area in south-west Indiana that is being operated under an agreement between Indiana Michigan Power and the Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Even though this public land is only 35 minutes from my back door, I had never taken the oppurtunity to visit until just recently.

The first thing I noticed was that most of the farmland is still that; beans and corn. It pretty much looks like any other rural area in Indiana, only it's open to the public. There was some fields close to the river that weren't planted, but most are still being farmed.

I wanted to check out the Wabash and see if there's any bank fishing spots, so I took a "seasonal" road to get there. You wouldn't get down this road without 4 wheel drive if it had been raining.

I parked and it was about a 1/4 mile walk to the river. A great horned owl busted out of a tree right beside me as I was walking and the first thing I saw at the river was a bald eagle fly across.



This is looking north up the river towards a sandbar.

And here's the sandbar. There might be some decent fishing here, but I'm not sure it would be worth the walk to get there.

 

There's some HUGE cotton wood trees along the river. This one I couldn't get my arms half way around.

 

 After checking out the sandbar I started working my way back down the river. I almost walked up on a doe that was bedded in some brush and then kicked up 2 more about a 100 yards further.

This gar was chillin along the bank. I also noticed several carp hanging out near the surface.

I found a spot on google earth where the bank cuts in and I thought it might be a good bank fishing spot. Wrong! Things look a lot different at ground level.

There's a place on the map called "Round Pond" and unfortunately, this pic was taken from the center of it. It's just a little bayou that's dried up.

I see you! I ended up seeing 5 deer and almost walked up to this little one before it took off.

This place looks like a bust for fishing, but should be a great hunting spot. I saw deer, turkeys, and a bunch of coyote sign. I didn't see any squirrels around the river, but did see some on the roads where there was corn. This place is HUGE at 8,000 acres and I'll definitely be back!
 
Troy Bell