What is "northern pike"

n. A species of pike, ''Esox lucius''.

n. voracious piscivorous pike of waters of northern hemisphere [syn: Esox lucius]

The northern pike (Esox lucius), known simply as a '''pike ''' in Britain, Ireland, most of Canada, and most parts of the United States (also called jackfish or simply "northern" in the U.S. Upper Midwest and in Manitoba), is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus Esox (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (i.e. holarctic in distribution).

Pike grow to a relatively large size: the average length is about . Even so, lengths of up to and weights of are very rare. The heaviest specimen known so far was caught in 1983 at an abandoned stone quarry in Germany, where the species is called Hecht. This specimen was long and weighed . The longest pike ever recorded and confirmed was long and weighed . A pike of was caught and released in May 2004 in Apisko Lake, Manitoba. Historic reports of giant pike, caught in nets in Ireland in the late 19th century, of with a length of , were researched by Fred Buller and published in The Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike. Neither Britain nor Ireland has managed to produce much in the way of giant pike in the last 50 years, so substantial doubt exists surrounding those earlier claims. Currently, the IGFA recognizes a pike caught by Lothar Louis in Lake of Greffern, Germany, on 16 October 1986, as the all-tackle world-record northern pike.