From pre-colonial times the people of Sota, a village on the shores of Lake Victoria in Mara region of Tanzania, have subsisted on agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing. This article documents co-operative ventures between women fish traders, local government representatives, the external fisheries bureaucracy and the training institutions between 1987 and late 1989. Some examples of such ventures are improvements to the smoking technology by building kilns and training for enhancing women’s small-scale fish trade.