NE,
Lots of questions before any answers.
What size and type of trout have you put in your pond? Rainbow should be pretty easy to catch. Browns would probably be pretty hard to catch.
Are you feeding? If you've put in 250 trout, and pulled out only 40, you should see a real serious feeding frenzy when you throw in just a handful of floating pellets if the water temperature is between about 40 to 65 degrees. That should give you a real good indication of the sizes and quantity of fish in the pond.
If you aren't feeding, what kind of forage or food do the trout have?
No offense, but I can't even imagine trying to pull a seine like you describe without a trawler. Hopefully somebody else can make some suggestions about it.
Let us know a little more.
Ken
