“The fish Denton landed weighs about four or five pounds and he said it took him around 20 minutes just to haul it in.”
20 minutes to land it? Was he fishing with cotton thread and a bent straight pen?
If he was fishing for perch & bluegill, I can see him using an ultra-light rig with 6 lb test.
With that equipment, a strong, active 4-5# fish may well have taken ten minutes to bring to the net (seeming like 20).
I use to catch sand bass when I lived Oklahoma. Never ate em. Too much work but, they were HeeLLatry Ue to catch.
They hit harder than large mouth and zip from one side to the next. could take quite a few minutes to reel in.