In August, Allison Park's Heather Seitz had a chance to go out fishing.

Way out.

The 19-year-old Pitt student, kung fu ace, EMT and competitive fly angler worked for two months as an Atlantic salmon fishing guide at a camp on the Ponoi River, north of the Arctic Circle on Russia's Kola Peninsula.

Seitz will talk about her Russian adventure, competitive fly fishing and conservation ethics at a Penn's Woods West Trout Unlimited chapter meeting at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Brentwood VFW on Rt. 51 (412-881-9934). Admission is free. The public is invited.

In order to take the Russian job, Seitz had to withdraw on short notice from the America Cup International Fly Fishing Tournament, disappointing colleagues.

"Ponoi was the opportunity of a lifetime. I didn't think I could pass it up," she said. "The way things are in the world, I didn't know if I could do it next year."

As only the second woman ever to guide on the Ponoi, Seitz said she had to earn the respect of the Ryabaga Camp staff.

"I had interviewed as manager for the camp," she said, "but they didn't know how that would go over with camp staff. So they asked me to guide. I had a week of training, learning how to fish for Atlantic salmon, how to work the boat. I definitely had to earn respect among the guys and the staff there."

But after Seitz guided a client to a 30-pound salmon that set a new camp record, she said, "everybody was very supportive."

"One client said that with male guides, sometimes it felt like [he was] competing with them. But with a female guide everything was more relaxed," she said. "Everybody was all about catching big, bright salmon, but I got excited just catching my first grayling. You could tell who was on my boat -- I got excited about every little thing and the clients would, too."

Tangling with the giant Atlantic kings, she said, is a different than fighting Erie steelhead.

"The flies are very different -- more ornate, more flash," she said. "And the way the fish hook is different. You don't set the hook, you cast out at a certain angle and let it drift. When it feels like someone is pulling the line, you let it take the line and it hooks itself."

Seitz used big No. 2-4 flies tied on sinking line with an intermediate tip fished with a 15-foot, 10-weight two-handed rod.

"It gives you a lot more power and gets the line out quicker than doing a double-haul with a single-handed rod," she said. "And the way the fish play is different. You hook up on salmon and they don't run until they get scared. With steelhead, you just set into them and they run."

While on the Ponoi, Seitz was photographed for the cover of the current issue of Trout and Salmon magazine's UK edition. She learned from clients about cultural differences in fishing techniques, but the biggest surprise of her trip came when a couple of clients said, "yinz."

"I said, 'I know where you're from -- the yinz gave it away.' It was good to see some Pittsburghers. We talked about the Steelers and Primanti's."