Pike

Esox is a genus of freshwater fish commonly called pike or pickerel and is the type genus of the family Esocidae. The type species is Esox lucius, the northern pike. Fossils of Esox extend back to the Paleocene. Modern large pike species are native to the Palearctic and Nearctic realms, occurring across North America and from Western Europe to Siberia in northern Asia. Pike have an elongated, torpedo-like body shape typical of predatory fishes, with sharply pointed heads and sharp teeth. Their coloration is typically grey-green with a mottled or spotted appearance and stripes along the back that provide camouflage among underwater weeds. Individual pike have unique marking patterns. Recorded maximums for the group include a length of 1.50 m (5 ft) and a weight of 55 lb, 1 oz. They are long-lived; a nineteenth-century museum skeleton of a particularly large specimen was thought to have been up to 100 years old.

At the country level, the clearest linked starting points on this guide currently point to Germany, Austria, Switzerland for divers looking for pikes.