Fishing Creek is a 29.98-mile (48.25 km) long tributary of the Susquehanna River in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Fishing Creek's source is 920 feet (280 m) above sea level in Sugarloaf Township, south of State Game Lands Number 13 and Pennsylvania Route 118, where East Branch and West Branch Fishing Creeks of southern Sullivan County meet in northern Columbia County.

[3][5] Around this point, Fishing Creek turns sharply south into Benton Township and starts flowing parallel to Pennsylvania Route 487.

[8] It passes near the northern edge of Knob Mountain 2 miles (3.2 km) downstream, then by Orangeville, and makes a 90° turn to the northwest.

Near Lightstreet, it turns west into Mount Pleasant Township, passing several lakes and the Turkey Hill Oxbow.

Upon entering Mount Pleasant Township, the creek stops paralleling Pennsylvania Route 487 and flows in the vicinity of Interstate 80 for 2 to 3 miles (3.2–4.8 km).

[3][6][9] As it flows between Bloomsburg and Fernville, it turns sharply westward, paralleling U.S. Route 11, and picks up Hemlock Creek, which is 1.52 miles (2.45 km) above the mouth.

East Branch Fishing Creek is a tributary that starts on North Mountain in Sullivan County and is approximately 4.4 miles (7.1 km) long.

[23] The forests around the lake also contain black birch, yellow birch, white oak, red oak, sugar maple, tulip poplar, and Norway maple, while the understory contains slippery elm, European privet, Japanese barberry, American elderberry, wild hydrangea, witch hazel, mountain laurel, ironwood, and the rare American yew.

These include white baneberry, northern maidenhair fern, spikenard, blue cohosh, foamflower, false Solomon's seal, purple trillium, and wild columbine.

Plants in this location include broadleaf arrowhead, northern blueflag, manna grasses, water starwort, and several varieties of sedges.

[25] By 3000 to 2000 BCE, some of them were going into the Fishing Creek valley during the winter to hunt deer and bears and returning to the Susquehanna River in the summer, creating trade routes.

[20] The first lots at the mouth of Fishing Creek were surveyed in 1769 when European settlers began moving into the area, and in the same year, the Penn family purchased 1,060 acres (430 hectares) of land 2 miles (3.2 km) upstream of Benton.

[20][27] In 1778, Moses Van Campen built a fort of logs covered with earth with a small swivel cannon on Fishing Creek to protect settlers on the frontier.

[33] The Fishing Creek Confederacy (August–November 1864) during the American Civil War was a suspected uprising of a high number of deserters and draft evaders.

A thousand soldiers occupied and searched the Fishing Creek valley and the mountains of its headwaters but were unable to find any deserters.

Typically, the creek and its tributaries are not at risk of becoming too acidic for the optimal health of fish, but in early spring during snowmelts, the levels approach the limit that brook trout can tolerate.

The Allegheny Plateau lies in the upper reaches of the watershed and is characterized by deep valleys and rounded mountains with elevations of around 2,400 feet (730 m).

[43] Near its mouth, it cuts through Montour Ridge, and a basalt-containing section of the Catskill Formation extends to the creek's banks in Hemlock Township.

[46] The lower part of the creek forms one side of a triangle of low-lying land in western Bloomsburg, which floods severely during heavy rains.

[27] The main soil in the area of Fishing Creek belongs to the Albrights series, which contains a 7-inch (18 cm) layer of sticky, reddish-brown, gravelly silt loam.

[43] The top 8 inches (20 cm) of the Leck Kill-Meckesville-Calvin series in the watershed is dark brown silt loam with small pieces of sandstone and shale.

[47] Benthic algae densely cover the bed of Fishing Creek, their preponderance attributed to leaking septic systems.

The dominant algal organism on West Branch Fishing Creek near the village of Elk Grove is Cladophora.

The green algae Tetraspora dominates the stretch of Fishing Creek for 3 miles (4.8 km) downstream of Grassmere Park, where it covers 80 percent of the riverbed.

West Creek has higher fish diversity than any other stream in the upper part of the watershed and is also the only place that is inhabited by wild brown trout.

Less commonly observed fish in the upper part of the watershed include johnny darters, white suckers, and black-nosed dace.

It is difficult for fish to spawn in the creek because of poor water quality near Benton, a lack of food, and dry headwaters for part of the year.

These include planting riparian buffers, eliminating leaky septic systems, and protecting the area from hydraulic fracturing.

[53] The western part of Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 13 is in a gorge cut by West Branch Fishing Creek.