Wow, now that is REALLY my home waters. If the guy who caught 15-20 was in that pool on opening day last year, it might well have been me. Though I woulda had a spinning rod on me, opening day is my one day with the spinning gear. I fished maybe a mile or so of stream from the opposite side last year before moving onto brookie water with the fly rod in the afternoon. I woulda passed by that pool maybe 10-11 o clockish. We had a real good day, we wound up in the 80ish range between 3 guys in a half day fishing, but I don't recall exactly where we got em all and which one of us fished that hole. Last year was truly exceptional for everyone though, the water temp was perfect.
Tionesta doesn't seem to bring fish to the surface very easily. In fact, you're success on opening day will be almost solely dependent on water temp, carry a thermometer. Get it up into the mid/upper 40's and it'll be good, if it hangs in the upper 30's, lower 40's then its gonna be a long day. Cross the stream and you'll run into a lot less guys, and it lets you cover lots of water. Thats the way to catch fish, never anchor yourself in one spot. For early season the browns won't have turned on yet, egg flies are about as good as it gets and its an easy tie for the rainbows and surprising number of brookies (assuming they come down from tribs?). I will throw on a streamer or bugger to mix things up, but the insect life is pretty poor so I typically don't use standard nymphs there. There are some caddis, you could try a pupa.
The advantage of a fly rod (ability to dead drift) will not be nearly as important on the Tionesta as it is at Erie. That doesn't mean you won't catch fish on fly gear, but early season Tionesta Creek is a situation where spinning gear is clearly superior. Fresh stockies and no surface action.
Minister is your classic native brookie stream, there's many just like it in that area. Get up away from the road a little, the special regs really increased the pressure right by the access there. But once you get a mile in or so its good. Doesn't so much matter what you use. If they'll hit a dry thats the easiest to fish and typically most successful for me. They will hit a dry come June, but in the early season like that I've had mixed success on top. Parachute Adams is my goto fly. If they won't touch it on top, throw a small beadhead bugger, or anything really into likely looking spots. Open big-woods style canopy so casting isn't such a chore there. Like all other brookie streams, they'll hit nearly anything, it'll be aggressive first cast type takes, but you'll only get one shot at it. If you screw up, move on to the next hole. The trick is to get a good cast in a good spot without spooking them first, in other words from as far away as possible. Fish upstream. Here I believe the fly fishermen does indeed have an advantage over a bait guy, and its based on fishing upstream, and not having to use split shot means you can fish at a distance without worry of snagging up. However, I will say small spinners fished upstream and reeled faster than the current are every bit, if not more, deadly.
