Tarcutta Creek is a NSW creek that runs into the Murrumbidgee River, and the draw is variety: rainbow trout, redfin and river blackfish all live in it.
Fish it as one creek, from wherever you can get in down to where it meets the Murrumbidgee. The choice is simply where you start.
The trip is the creek itself, with a small nymph for rainbows and a streamer for redfin. Choose an access site from the access card, walk to the water and fish upstream. The current NSW guide decides the season and limits, so read it before you settle on a date.
Pack nymphs, a dark streamer and a hopper, then check the NSW guide before you leave.
Water and habitat
Tarcutta Creek runs into the Murrumbidgee River. In our experience fish sit where they have cover and food: the head of a pool where the run tips in, the seam beside faster current, an undercut bank, the slack behind a log or a boulder. Shallow, even-bottomed water usually holds fewer fish.
Redfin and river blackfish both like cover, so in our experience the same snags and deep edges that suit a trout are worth a cast for them too.
Fish and forage
Rainbow trout, redfin and river blackfish are the fish worth planning around. Mountain galaxias, eastern gambusia and goldfish are also recorded, and small fish like these often make up part of what bigger fish eat, which is a good reason to carry a streamer.
European carp are recorded here too. If you see one, it is a different day's fishing from the trout, so do not let it spoil the rest of your creek.
NSW stocking records list golden perch released into the creek in earlier seasons. The stocking chart shows when. For your fishing that is a maybe, not a plan.
The rest of the fly box is a guide's read. In our experience fish take nymphs drifting near the bottom and whatever falls from the bank. A few buoyant dries, a hopper and some bead-head nymphs are a reasonable start.
When to fish it
Settle the rules first: take any season for the creek from the current NSW guide. Within whatever it allows, in our experience a hopper along a grassy bank is worth a try in summer, fished early and late when the light is off the water. After heavy rain, give a creek a day or two to drop and clear before you go.
How to fish it
Travel light and fish upstream. Keep low, stay back from the edge, and make short casts with as little line on the water as you can.
Start with a small bead-head Pheasant Tail or Hare's Ear dead-drifted through the head of each pool, and give it two or three good drifts before you move up. For redfin, a dark Woolly Bugger stripped slowly past cover and along the edge of deep water is a good bet; fish it again if you see a following fish turn away. In summer, swap to a hopper and land it close to the bank wherever grass meets the water.
Access and safety
The access card names the access sites. Treat them as locations, not a statement of permission, and respect any fence or sign you meet on the ground.
As on any bush creek, tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back, carry water and a small first-aid kit, and watch your footing on wet rock and undercut banks. Keep an eye on the sky, and never wade a crossing you are unsure of.
Regulations
No water-specific rule was found. Before you fish, read the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development guide, check its closed-waters list, and take any season, bag and size limits and licence requirements from it.
