Esox lucius; Print; The northern pike (Esox lucius); known simply as a pike in Britain; Ireland; most of Canada; and most parts of the United States (once called luce when fully grown; also called jackfish or simply "northern" in the U.S. Upper Midwest and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta; Manitoba and Saskatchewan); 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).; 1700-1880