RaycastHit CS0165 Error

Hey I get this error every time but I don't know why: "Assets/Scripts/PickUp/BranchPickUp.cs(20,20): error CS0165: Use of unassigned local variable `hit'"

And here is script: using System.Collections; using UnityEngine;

 public class BranchPickUp : MonoBehaviour {
 
     BranchNumberBehaviour BranchNumber;
     bool canhover;
     GameObject Branch;
 
     void Start () {
 
         BranchNumber = GameObject.Find("NumberOfBranch").GetComponent<BranchNumberBehaviour>();
     }
 
     void Update () {
 
         var fwd = transform.TransformDirection(Vector3.forward);
         RaycastHit hit;
 
         if(hit.distance <= 5.0 && hit.collider.gameObject.tag == "PickUp")
         {
             canhover = true;
 
             if(Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.E))
             {
                 BranchNumber.NumberOfBranches += 1;
             }
         }
     }
 }