If you can't afford the seine then my advice is to fish for them.
Invite some friends over. Get a few dozen poles in the water. You could probably catch a few hundred in a day if you really worked at it.
That may not be enough to manage the pond how you would like to manage it, but getting a few hundred out is better than getting zero out AND it makes for one hell of a fish fry!
You could even open your pond for the day to a local boyscout troop, or maybe have a fund raiser. Invite a ton of local fisherman over and ask for a $5 donation per person to fish for channel cats in your pond. Then donate all of the fish caught to hungry local families. You could make enough money to buy your seine, you could harvest your fish (or some of them) and you could help your community.
There are a lot of ways to do it, but when money is tight you need to get creative. You could even have people with local ponds come over to catch CC for their own ponds. You could get rid of yours and help them get theirs at the same time.
I'm sure that other members here will have some good ideas for you too. I know that a lot of us are feeling the pinch of the economy. Just read my signature, "reality keeps ruining my life" LOL.
