As Chile West ends its journey down the Carretera, one of the last rivers on our list is the Rio Emperador Guillermo (Gee-air-mo). This is one of the smallest rivers we fish and in reality could be called a stream as it is strictly a walk and wade fishery.
The 18 miles of river is situated just north of Coyhaique which is home base for the last two days of our trip.
The river winds its way from the town of Villa Ortega to the mouth where it meets the Carretera and the Rio Manihuales.
Most of the river is accessible by road and a bit of walking except the last 2 miles where it runs through canyon and a short 2.5 mile stretch which runs away from the road at mile 5.
The Emperador Guillermo is home to brown and rainbow trout. It’s a classic dry fly/nymph fishery and is abundant with insect life such as hoppers, stone flies and caddis.
The fish aren’t huge but they are eager to eat. In all it’s a great place to stretch the legs and get a bit of exercise while enjoying some great fishing and scenery.
The last day I ever fished in Chile was on the Rio Emperador Guillermo. I went to a favorite section with my wife and, as in the majority of times, we had the whole section to ourselves. We fished hard and I may have even had a 100 fish day but I lost count after several dozen. It became like fishing in a dream after that. Appropriate since our own name for that reach is the Dream Canyon (it’s just upstream a bit from the pool in this photo). The fish in the photo here is an excellent example of the nicer rainbows to be found in this river and as you know, there are some very nice browns there, too. It’s kind of sad seeing this river publicised so much these days, but I guess it’s not like people didn’t know about it before anyway. The Guillermo has to be one of the best small stream fisheries I’ve ever wet a line in. I have so many good memories from that piece of water that I’m still high off them after 2 years. Thanks for sharing this photo. It brings a lot of those memories back.