There's an old saying that goes, "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day." A case coming to us out of Southeast Asia has proven that this aphorism is true. This is the first time we're herring about this particular case; it seems that recently, in Thailand, a dispute between two fishermen over whose Catch O' the Day was bigger was solved in an unorthodox matter: by harpoon.

That's not a dueling method one hears about often, with or without the addition of beer.

Sujit Klingtalay was out with friends fishing and drinking beers in the Nakhon Ratchasima province of Thailand when the recent incident occurred. 

The 45-year-old told Viral Press that he and another friend got into an argument about which man had caught a bigger fish.

"I was fishing with my friend, and we joked about the fish we had caught. I said [that] I had caught bigger fish than him, but he was offended," he said.

Out of anger, Klingtalay’s friend decided to aim a fishing harpoon at the back of Klingtalay’s head — which lodged inside in the skin.

Here's the great bit:

"When the harpoon first hit me, I felt the pain in my head, but I had a cigarette and felt better," he recalled to Viral Press.

Klingtalay’s friends quickly put him into the back of a pickup truck and took him to the Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital.

There, volunteers had to cut off most of the foot-long harpoon before doctors could perform surgery. 

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There you have it, folks: The proper emergency treatment for a harpoon to the head is, of course, a cigarette. (Those must be some really good cigarettes.)

It's fortunate that the intrepid angler, following the attack, was able to get to a good sturgeon. He was evaluated, the harpoon removed, and reportedly no serious damage was done. Mr. Klingtalay therefore avoided turtle disaster. On the other hand, it's unclear as to whether Mr. Klintalay's unnamed friend will face any charges, as the Thai press seems to be pretty koi about revealing that information. Presumably, they don't want to mussel in on the authorities in determining what charges might be appropriate.

I'm guessing Mr. Klingtalay came away from the whole thing with a really bad haddock. If we could offer him any advice, it would be to exercise a little more discretion in his choice of fishing partners in the future, the old caution of "keep your friends close, and your anemones closer" notwithstanding. There is always the chance of another such argument leading to another harpooning, which would be an unfortunate example of singing the same tuna. Mr. Klingtalay would clearly be better off fishing with salmon else.

Hopefully paying for the medical care won't require Mr. Klingtalay to visit a loan shark.

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