Fish community assessment is an important tool to evaluate invasive species risk, and environmental DNA (eDNA) methods may supplement traditional methods to enhance detection and analyses. However, eDNA community assessments are not typically included in standardized surveys because molecular methods remain under-studied in management contexts and may not fit well with existing protocols. We aim to develop practical, scalable methods for eDNA based fish community surveys in freshwater lentic systems with varying complexity and diversity. We conducted fish surveys of the Saint Louis River Estuary (SLRE) and 8 lakes in different ecoregions of Minnesota to optimize the effort required to maximize species richness and detect invasive species using different spatial allocations (nearshore vs. offshore), sampling method (eDNA vs. physical catch), and classification method (molecular [metabarcoding AM12S and Ac16S] vs. morphology). In 2015-2018 surveys of the SLRE, DNA based-survey approaches were as good as or better than traditional adult, juvenile, or larval surveys in detecting recently introduced white bass (Morone chrysops) and gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum). A 2021 survey (1131 samples from 315 sites) expanded on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Aquatic Resource lake-survey design. Preliminary results for small and medium lakes (n=5) indicate that eDNA methods detected as many or more fish species than traditional survey methods, with eDNA detecting 88-100% of species and physical methods detecting 50-100%. However, although there was considerable overlap, some species were missed in both traditional and molecular methods. We expect results to provide insight on how to efficiently incorporate eDNA sampling into existing broad scale lentic surveys to increase the probability of detecting new invaders and native fish species that may be missed by traditional methods.