In 1978 John Randolph became managing editor of Fly Fisherman magazine. The job required him to travel across the U.S. and Canada in search of great waters to fish and to find writers who could tell the regional stories. The magazine also brought him to the most unspoiled and beautiful places in the world. In 1988 he began serving as the magazines publisher for 22 years, officially retiring in 2010.

John believes that fly fishing, by nature, and among other things, consists of special values and sacred beliefs that eventually turns some fishermen into fly fishers. However, he also contends the Western man has become nearly disconnected from the natural world.

He also believes that fly fishing offers a unique and divine journey that gradually opens the doors of understanding the natural world. Like many who fly fish, the special things that occur during these preternatural moments magnify the extravagant pleasure in being alive. They may feel an almost ethereal escape from his confining intellect into the magical world of the mystic. They may even experience the passionate embrace of something outside themselves, a release from estrangement and despair, a reconnection with an archaic feeling for the land and the water. He may discover that profoundly secret pass that leads from fate to freedom. A process he further explains in his book: Becoming A Fly Fisher.

This “pass” is what John has discovered through fly fishing and through his special family—the pass to wisdom. He credits both his job and family for his intellectual growth, stating that nothing opens a family’s understanding of what it means to be human more than sharing growth with a severely handicapped child. Their daughter, Kathy, became their family mission, hero, and teacher. What they learned was that family is not everything, but it is the most important aspect of life.

He was inducted into the Catskill Museum Fly Fishing Hall of Fame on Oct. 9, 2010.