The Environmental Water Knowledge and Research Program aims to help inform flow management through understanding flow-ecology relationships. For the fish research theme, recruitment has been seen by both managers and scientists as a priority area. Three broad classes of theory have contributed to our understanding of riverine fish recruitment: life history theory, river ecosystem concepts and fish recruitment hypotheses. This paper will explore these, with the aim of developing an integrated model describing the recruitment of riverine fishes and its relationship with flow. Specifically, the synthesis investigates how physiological, behavioural and life-history traits are correlated, how these three components interact with the key features of river ecosystems – and flow in particular – to contribute to fish recruitment; explores the relevance of river ecosystem concepts for explaining patterns and processes in fish recruitment and population dynamics; relates current ideas and hypotheses about fish recruitment from all aquatic environments to rivers and riverine fishes; and explores how the resulting model can be used to identify knowledge gaps and future research areas, and to develop ecological guidelines for use in river management.