The creek's watershed has an area of 16.6 square miles (43 km2), most of which is agricultural, forested, or urban land.

A small number of dams, mills, and schoolhouses were built on West Creek in the 19th and early 20th century.

West Creek begins on Huckleberry Mountain in Davidson Township, Sullivan County.

It then turns south-southwest for a short distance, reaching the base of Huckleberry Mountain and crossing Pennsylvania Route 118, before southeast for a few miles in a valley, receiving one unnamed tributary from the left and another from the right.

The creek then enters Sugarloaf Township and receives another unnamed tributary from the left and turns south.

For the next few miles, it flows alongside West Creek Road and receives another unnamed tributary from the right.

The creek then turns southeast for several miles, flowing alongside Pennsylvania Route 239 and receiving another unnamed tributary from the left and entering Benton Township.

It turns south for more than a mile, still flowing alongside Pennsylvania Route 239 and crossing it several times.

[2] The water temperature in West Creek in the summer can be as high as 25 °C (77 °F), which is 3°C (5.4°F) higher than coldwater fish can tolerate.

The northern part of the watershed has rock belonging to the Catskill Formation, which consists of sandstone and siltstone and also comes from the Devonian.

[5] There is significant agricultural activity done in the lower reaches of the watershed of West Creek and there are also some residential areas.

[9] A two-span concrete tee beam bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 239 was built over the creek in 1934.

Another bridge of the same type, but with only a single, was built 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north of Benton in the same year.

A prestressed box beam or girders bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 239 was built in 2004.

The most common fish in the creek are sculpin, eastern blacknose dace, and cutlips minnows.

In the aforementioned electrofishing survey, a total of 81 sculpin, 34 black-nosed dace, and 17 cutlips minnows were observed.

Other species of fish in the watershed include johnny darter, white sucker, and creek chub.

[3] In 2011, the habitat quality of upper Fishing Creek and its tributaries were rated on a scale of 1 to 200 (with a higher rating indicating better habitability) by Point Park University and the Fishing Creek Sportsmans' Association.