Kent is right on in his description of Crab Creek. Crab starts near Spokane and wanders all through Eastern, WA. Very little of it is on public lands but there is a decent section on some BLM near Sprague Lake. From there it wanders through Harrington, towards Odessa and then launches down towards Moses Lake.
Not all of the creek has year around water flow. Parts of it either go dry or are controlled for irrigation. I have not fished the extreme East end of it or any sections near Moses Lake. I have fished the BLM land section and there are/were some big trout in that stretch till the word got out. I sat in one hole one day and counted 15 rainbows that were around 20 inches sitting on the bottom. They all had lock jaw that day but I have pulled a few in the 16 inch range out of this stretch. The last few times I have been out, there has been noticeably more pressure as there are now worn trails along the creek that weren't there when I first started fishing it. I also haven't seen any really big fish in this stretch for awhile. The big browns you are seeing on the magazine cover come from the privately owned stretches of the creek. A buddy of mine gets access to a farm about twice a year through a friend of his. The friend does their taxes and gets an invite a couple of times a season. He showed me pictures from their last outing and it included a 30+ brown, and several well over 20". They fish big leaches on sinking tips along the bank undercuts. So in summary, yes there are huge fish in this creek but access is very, very limited. Mike
