Attracting migrating fish into fishway entrances is a demanding but fundamental challenge influencing the performance of any fishway. Preliminary findings are presented of an international review of the processes associated with fishway attracting fish into fishways. This study is motivated by the critical need to restore migration pathways for whole communities of freshwater fish, especially those moving upstream. Internationally, ongoing monitoring continues to reveal collapses among freshwater migratory fish populations and communities. Attraction flow, entrance geometry and depth, water quality and biological factors are all identified as important, influencing fish motivation to enter. Our review established broad interpretations of fishway behaviour that are valuable for describing the attracting flow field within and in the vicinity of the fishway entrance. Strategies for improving fish attraction into fishways are identified and summarised.