Abstract: Fishways of rock-ramp type are a common form of nature-like fishways. This paper demonstrates two new fishway structures, i.e. aligned slot arrangement and staggered slot arrangement, and presents three-dimensional flow simulations of the two designs to examine their hydraulic characteristics. Scale model tests were conducted to verify the simulations and the numerical model. The results show that in comparison of the flows in the same depth of water, the aligned design is featured with a lower maximum velocity, and the staggered design has a higher growth rate of flow velocity in the adjacent pool downstream. The simulated vertical profiles and test data reveal that the former is more rational in the distributions of turbulent kinetic energy than the latter. Thus, the aligned slot design with better overall hydraulic performance is recommended in this study.