— Lake
I don't think dragging local ponds for small fry using baskets (like Edward Thomas, above) or sacks was ever practised in the 1950s, but I have seen other references. See e.g. George Tones, "Youthful Times in 1930s Battersea": "[O]n summer days, we would get a sack and go 'dragging' up on Clapham Common; two of us would hold the four corners of the sack and drag it in the pond. We would catch tiddlers and put them in jam jars" (Wandsworth Historian no 96).
"Dragging" is described in this story of a dog's supersense that saves a young child from drowning in the lake:
GRISSEL IGNORES THE WHISTLE
THE pond at Wandsworth Common is a favourite fishing-ground for the small children who live in South-west London, and the small boys are always excited and happy when the "tiddler" season begins. They wade gleefully through the water with "drags" — imitations of draw-nets, made of pieces of sacking or old clothing.
They are often helped by smaller children, who wade out behind them and anxiously peer at the "drag" as it is brought to the surface and discloses its treasure, which may be a "red-throat" (a very valued and superior kind of "tiddler") or only a small collection of water-weeds.
[PB: A "red-throat", as we have seen, is a male stickleback.]
No one ever knows what will be found in the pond. If a "red-throat" of unusual size is captured, the boys become so excited that they forget that their mothers commanded them to look after little "Bobby" and not to let him get too near the water. As a rule, the baby brother is as deep in the water as he can get. One spring evening a baby brother went so far into the pond that his companions could not see him and went home in the dusk without him.
That evening, Dr. St. Vincent-Ryan was walking with his son round the Common and with them was Grissel, a very handsome collie dog . . .
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