Tarcutta Creek is small enough to jump across as it begins its journey from farmland and pine plantations in the hills of the Yaven Creek area. Slowly, it gets wider and deeper as it works its way down through farmland to its final destination, the Murrumbidgee River between Wagga Wagga and Gundagai.
The top half of the creek is a small trout stream and can be fun to fish during the cooler months but it is the bottom section I would like to concentrate on here.
The area I enjoy fishing is the last 20km or so, where it is typically loaded with timber, 8m to 20m wide and a metre or two deep with the odd deeper hole - perfect for natives.
Most targeted species in this area are Murray cod, golden perch and, love them or hate them, carp. There is also a good population of the protected trout cod, especially around the mouth of the creek, and there is even the odd silver perch caught from time to time.
I became acquainted with this pretty piece of water at the beginning of the Murray Cod season about four years ago. The days were already very warm and, due to circumstances out of my control, I had to fish in the middle of the day - not what I'd prefer to do on hot days. I was dropped off at around 9am and expected to be picked up around 3pm, a good six-hour session.
The plan was to walk in one direction for around three hours and then head back so I could really work each snag thoroughly but still get back in time for my ride.
This creek is fairly small but has a huge number of snags so I chose to use spinnerbaits. Used properly, they very rarely get snagged when cast into heavy timber.
Intent on covering every nook and cranny of each snag, I managed to walk only around 2km downstream before I had to start heading back. Some of the snags that I had covered just screamed 'big cod' but after more than five hours of casting I hadn't raised a scale and felt a little dejected.
As I got back to my pick-up point, I started to work the last snag of the day while I waited for my lift to arrive. It was a dead tree that had fallen straight across the creek almost to the opposite bank. I was a little early and had plenty of time to really work this snag and work it I did.