Saginaw County Man Busted Illegally Baiting with Dump Truck of Beets
The DNR reports that they received an anonymous tip last year about somebody using a dump truck full of sugar beets and two dump trailer full of corn for deer bait in Saginaw County in late November of last year.
They went out to the property in Merrill (about 60 miles northeast of Lansing) and found a hunting blind with a nearby grain trailer full of corn with the door busted off and about 100 gallons of corn on the ground. The DNR officer also encountered a 150 yard long 'cobblestone road' of sugar beets which circled around the blind. The 'bait pile' was estimated to be somewhere around 2 and a half tons. The legal limit for bait is two gallons.
After some sleuthing, the land was determined to belong to 40 year old Dexter Sysak of Merrill, who was found in the blind on the illegally baited property, hunting deer with three pals on November 29, 2016. At the time, Sysak admitted to the Conservation Officer that he'd taken a 9 point deer feeding on the illegal bait. The antlers and meat from that deer were recovered from the processor.
Sysak pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges of using an over-limit of bait, failing to wear hunter orange and taking a deer by an illegal method. He was convicted by a jury in April and last week he was sentenced to serve 45 days in jail, two years probation and 90 hours of community service. Sysak also had all sport license privileges revoked through 2022. And the meat from the 9 point will be provided to families in need in that community.