Rajdhala beel is a semi-closed fishery located in Purbadhala thana in Netrakona district of Bangladesh. There are 4 villages around the beel with 640 households of which 93 households are traditional fishers. Before the liberation war in 1971, fisheries (jalmahals) were managed by landlords ‘zamindars’ and later by the Department of Fisheries during the Pakistan Period. There was less fishing pressure in the waterbody then, and fishers sometimes gave big carp and other wild fish to the zamindar living around the waterbody. It reported that in some years in the 1960s the Department of Fisheries released carp in the beel. Fisher leaders were responsible for guarding and all other fishing activities. They did not catch small sized stocked fish and they would only get 25% of income from catching good size of carp and gave 75% of income to DoF. After the independence of Bangladesh a Fisher Cooperative Society took the lease to this beel for three years. The cooperative society members, totaling 72 fishers, introduced fishing by five teams following a rotational system. In 1990 the beel was transferred under the New Fisheries Management Policy (NFMP). A major effort to promote more sustainable management in the beel was taken in 1996 through the CBFM project. Caritas, a national Non Government Organization working for the betterment of poor people, has worked on a process of empowering fishers to carry out their own development and to manage their renewable resources. This study looks at the community based management of Rajadhala beel which shows that given tactical and government support favourable, the poor fishers can bring about tangible improvements both in their own lives and in the management of the common property resources. With NGO support backed by government, fisheries rights can be established resulting in more sustainable and productive fishery management.