SANDPOINT - A Bonner County man is pleading not guilty to guiding without a license on Priest Lake last summer.

Delbert Wayne Jepson made his initial appearance in magistrate court on Friday to answer to the misdemeanor charge. A trial date is pending.

The Idaho Outfitters and Guides Licensing Board began investigating Jepson last April, after receiving a report that he was guiding fishing trips without a license. Agents from the board and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game posed as anglers and took a trip on June 4.

Jepson, 54, of Priest River, is also accused of identifying himself as a guide in July, when he was contacted by an Idaho Fish and Game official who was conducting a creel survey, according to court documents.

A Fish and Game conservation officer confronted Jepson, who said he was a licensed hunting guide and believed that the license also covered fishing, the officer's report stated.

Jepson said he had been guiding for Steven Wesley Laut since 2013, the report said.

Laut, meanwhile, is also facing misdemeanor criminal charge for employing Jepson even though he did not have a fishing guide license. Laut, 59, of Spokane Valley, Wash., is scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 24.