"Crazy Alberto" Knie is a world-class field tester, in the purest sense of the term.
November 19, 2024
By David A. Brown
Be careful what you wish for—especially if you’re a fishing tackle manufacturer asking Alberto Knie to evaluate your newest item. You might hear good news, you might not.
You might get your baby returned in more pieces than when you sent it.
Yeah, this guy’s really good at breaking stuff—but all for good reason.
A seasoned field tester, Knie has long enjoyed something of a cult hero status among hardcore anglers thanks to a high-stakes fishing style that’s earned him the nickname “Crazy Alberto.” But make no mistake, the Fort Myers, Florida angler’s quite sane, although he’s inwardly driven by a passion for some pretty out-there angling antics—the kind that provide a fluff-free evaluation for product thresholds.
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Serving as a field tester for top brands such as St. Croix, Daiwa, Shimano, Penn, and Mustad, Knie carries rods, reels, lures and line into world where only the strongest survive. Best part is, the brass need not concern themselves with questionable locations, dark-thirty missions and the kind of footing that could realistically send those unfamiliar to the E.R.
That’s Knie’s job.
“It requires a different kind of personality,” he said of his lust for adventure and intensely critical demeanor. “Manufacturers know my history; I’m an extreme fisherman and I’m very detail oriented.
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“They understand how I fish and I understand what it takes to launch new products and ensure the product is viable.”
Right for the Role An authentic no-guts-no-glory angler who’s as comfortable hopping along jetty rocks as he is making laser casts to specific big-fish zones, he traces his passion for the daring to his striper days. Spending much of his life in New York, he frequented striped bass meccas like Montauk and Block Island, where donning wetsuits and swimming out to coastal rock perches was the deal.
Demanding habitat, precarious positions—his striper addiction took him to specific spots where huge cow stripers were always one cast away. Not for the faint of heart, such scenarios left zero room for doubt. You either bring the right equipment or you go home humiliated.
Flash forward to the past decade, he has lived in South Florida, where he’s now closer to the giant snook, redfish, tarpon and Goliath grouper fisheries that once required vacation days. Translating his northeast striper tactics to Sunshine State beaches and jetties, Knie hunts the legit giants that’ll quickly identify and exploit any weakness in the tooling.
See, that’s the thing—everyone loves catching big fish and Knie’s notched hundreds of the ones most folks only see in pictures. However, even those that escape provide valuable data.
Did the drag slip? Does the rod have too much tip, or not enough? It’s not all drama driven; often simply casting and retrieving baits allows Knie to observe and report on performance and durability.
He’s not knocking social media influencers, but foregoing the pursuit of likes, follows, and subscriptions, Knie’s reputation bespeaks his ability to provide the critical R&D feedback that ultimately makes a product promotion-worthy. With an art degree and an advertising/marketing background, he has a keen eye for the visual stuff, but these days, Knie’s more interested in helping tackle manufacturers create something worth selling.
Alberto Knie is committed to real-world experiences to prove products are as tough as promised. He literally tries to break things throughout that effort. The Process While the notion of pro-staff promotion has its place in overall marketing plans, Knie’s services are something very different.
“I don’t hold back,” he said. “I don’t talk to the public, but if you’re going to hire me to give it a whirl, two things are going to happen: First, with the amount of time I spend on the water and knowing what kind of product I am testing, you can get that I am going to stress that (product).
“You might give that product to a pro-staffer, they’ll probably say, ‘Give me a 6 months or a year and I’ll give you good feedback.’ By comparison, I literally fish 279 days on average a year, so give me three months, I’ll test the product at an extreme level and I will give you an honest breakdown.”
Beyond the testing phase, he makes trade show appearances where he takes a non-biased, tell-it-like it is approach.
“If I like a product, I will talk about it and (because) people know that I fish hard, they know that if I mention it that it has gone through my rigorous testing,” he said. “Folks that know me understand that Alberto doesn’t promote junk.
“I’ve field tested so many products and I’ve seen many disappointments. For example, a submersible reel—if you’re saying this is the best reel on the marketplace, let me be the judge.”
During such testing, Knie strongly prefers to work alone, if for no other reason than to spare others the rigors for which most are not prepared. He’ll occasionally make a special exception, like the time he took St. Croix Marketing Director Jesse Simpkins to the test lab to celebrate the company’s trio of ICAST Awards.
Somewhere around 2:45 a.m., he coached Simpkins to 54-inch of snook—caught on one of those award-winning rods that had previously earned his stamp of approval.
The Goal No joke, he takes each product to the torture chamber and treats it like an enemy combatant from which he’s trying to extract critical information. Will every angler subject their gear to such brutality? Unlikely.
But suffice to say, if a rod, reel, or lure can survive a thorough workout in Alberto Knie’s world, it’s going to stand up to the average consumer’s expectations.
Noting the long-term mindset necessary to truly understand a product, he said: “There’s always a time frame when you’re going to find out (a product’s limits). Catch one big fish, okay, but what happens next week when the reel’s gear is skipping, or seizing, or there’s oil leaking.
“I pay extremely close attention, but I try not to do any maintenance (during product testing) because that’s cheating. If you’re going to go through a true test in a short period of time, the product has to go through that stress test without maintenance.
“At the end, when I give a report, I would say, ‘You might want to look at the internal gear because I burned the gear, the drag was stressed and it wasn’t locked when it went on the reserve drag and I smoked the reel.’”
No sugar coating, no punches pulled. Pleasantries and platitudes improve nothing.
Straightforward, fact-based statements—that’s the rainwater that makes the garden grow.
Noble Intent Knie’s not trying to burst any bubbles or hurt anyone’s feelings; rather, he’s dead set on helping manufacturers bring to market products that perform as promised. Contract arrangements aside, he draws much of his motivation from his own disappointments.
“I take it personally,” he said. “With the amount of time I spend on the water, I know what it’s like to have spent (money) with an expectation for products that do not meet the expectation.”
Beyond that, it comes down to a hard-earned reputation built on superior angling skill, a drive far exceeding any consideration of reasonable and the cerebral ability to apply his obsession for pragmatic purpose. Such standing does not come easily and Knie’s not about to yield his to the path of least resistance.
“The bottom line is I am not a ‘yes’ person,” he said. “A company might ask me, ‘Can you test this reel and give us positive feedback?’, but I’d question the word ‘positive.’
“It’s a rude awakening, but anyone I deal with knows my background.”
Not surprisingly, his highly selective with which trade show booths he works. Smiling a shaking hands doesn’t move the needle for manufacturers. They need knowledgeable types to explain and promote products to consumers and prospective retail customers.
Explaining and promoting; it may sound redundant, but not for a seasoned product tester bound by an internal code.
“If I have not personally tested that new product, I am not going to be at that booth explaining why that product is good,” he said. “It boils down to my credibility. I could put on a smile and say, ‘Yes, this product is great,’ but I would be lying to myself and then I would not feel good about transferring information that is a lie.”
Manufacturers understand his commitment to integrity and his ability to prove or disprove product claims.
That’s why they hire Alberto Knie to break stuff.
