Nets have the general name of 'upenga. The craft of netting is old, as denoted by the sayings associated with the ancestor Pili: O le 'upenga o Pili a tautau ae fangota (The net of Pili hangs up but it catches fish).

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Pili did his netting at night and thus, though people only saw his net hanging up in the daytime, it nevertheless caught fish. Another saying conveys the same idea: O le 'upenga o Pili e fili i le po ae tala i le ao (The net of Pili is bundled up at night but spread out during the day).

The net was spread out during the day to dry but at night it was bundled up for transport down to the sea. Thus Pili did things quietly and unobserved without seeking public assistance.

The net is also mentioned in the early days of Tangaloa-ui for it was with a net spread over the mouth of a cave in Tau that he intercepted Sina Sasau-mani on her return from bathing. An old man on Tau also said that there was a net associated with the Sasaumani but all he could remember of it was the method of introducing extra meshes.