Set net fishing started in Cook Inlet in the 1800's. When people first started to catch fish they used fish traps. Fish traps were huge traps built out of driven stakes and strong wire. The stakes were driven into the sand, mud and clay by pile drivers. When the tide came in, fish would swim into the traps and be picked up by large boats called tenders.

When Alaska became a state, fish traps became illegal because they blocked too many old fish from reaching their own spawning streams. Set nets and drift nets replaced the traps and have become the type of fishing gear used.