Not seeing any branches, can't create branch

I am running into the following error when i try to create a branch...

LibGit2Sharp.NotFoundException: revspec 'master' not found
   at LibGit2Sharp.Core.Ensure.HandleError(Int32 result)
   at LibGit2Sharp.Core.Proxy.git_annotated_commit_from_revspec(RepositoryHandle repo, String revspec)
   at LibGit2Sharp.Core.Proxy.git_branch_create_from_annotated(RepositoryHandle repo, String branch_name, String targetIdentifier, Boolean force)
   at LibGit2Sharp.BranchCollection.Add(String name, String committish, Boolean allowOverwrite)
   at LibGit2Sharp.BranchCollection.Add(String name, String committish)
   at LibGit2Sharp.RepositoryExtensions.CreateBranch(IRepository repository, String branchName)
   at EncompassSettingsExport.GitWriter..ctor(String PathToRepo, Signature Signature, CredentialsHandler credentialsHandler, String Branch, String SupplimentalPath, ILogger logger, Boolean purgeDirectory) in C:\Users\barnao\Downloads\EncompassSettingsExport2\EncompassSettingsExport\EncompassSettingsExport\GitWriter.cs:line 52
   at EncompassSettingsExport.Program.<Run>d__1.MoveNext() in C:\Users\barnao\Downloads\EncompassSettingsExport2\EncompassSettingsExport\EncompassSettingsExport\Program.cs:line 71
Finished! Press any key to exit...

The line of code that produces this error is

brnch = repo.CreateBranch(Branch)

Where Branch is just a string like "test-brnch" and repo is a Repository object i've already created.

I am checking to make sure i can see my repo here (it is a private non-local repo)

Repository.IsValid(PathToRepo)

and this returns true.

I create my repo here...

repo = new Repository(PathToRepo);

However i've noticed that when i call

repo.Branches.Count();

This return 0 even though i do have a few branches in my repo

Start with EncompassSettingsExport.GitWriter.cs line 52 and Program.cs line 71, then inspect the Repository setup and the repo.Branches.Count() result. Reproduce the branch-creation attempt against the described private repository and verify whether existing branches are enumerated and CreateBranch succeeds; document the relevant failure or fix with a regression test if the project provides one.