MEADVILLE &045; Slowly but surely, it’s filling up.

Already it’s larger than the lake at Natchez State Park and that’s just the beginning.

Lake Okhissa, the newly formed body of water in the Homochitto National Forest, will have 39 miles of shoreline, cover more than 1,000 acres and have a maximum depth of 73 feet.

Of course, the dam was only closed in early November, so the lake won’t be full until sometime around summer 2007. And a number of developments &045; a permanent campground, a marina and picnic sites &045; may not be in place by then.

But in the meantime, there’s a lake slowly starting to form. In a few years, there will be a new fishing spot for local anglers and a new camping destination for outdoors lovers in southwest Mississippi.

The residents of Franklin County have been dreaming of a lake for decades.

&8220;This community has been looking for this for a long time. It’s a dream come true for them,&8221; Carroll Boll, the lake project manager, said.

The lake has a maximum depth of 23 feet right now, about 50 short what the eventual total will be.

&8220;It’s filling up according to schedule,&8221; District Ranger Tim Reed said. &8220;We’ve had a lot of rain, which is good for us.&8221;

The entire projected shoreline falls within the bounds of the national forest, meaning no homes or businesses had to be uprooted to make the new lake.

Finishing touches are still being put on the dam, including one more foot of height and work on erosion control which will be finished early next year. A road is being put in to the dam and utilities will also be put in before the lake opens for recreational use.

But for now, the staff at Homochitto National Forest is happy with where the lake is.

&8220;We’ve got water in the lake and fish in the water, so it feels great,&8221; Boll said.

Further work will start early next year, when the staff puts out a prospectus to ask for bids from businesses who are interested in developing parts of the lake. The staff says a marina, a boat ramp, a permanent campground and possibly cabins or a lodge will be put in eventually.

The prospectus will solicit bids from businesses to build recreational facilities.

Those businesses will operate the facilities under special use permits, meaning they will pay the Forest Service a portion of use fees in order to operate their facility. The good part about that for the Forest Service is that it won’t have to pay to maintain the facilities. That will be the responsibility of the private companies.

&8220;It’s good for us, because that way the businesses have to do the maintenance,&8221; Reed said. &8220;We can’t afford the long-term upkeep for facilities. This way we don’t have to worry about that.&8221;

The third round of fish stocking for the lake took place earlier this week, and two more rounds of stocking will occur in the spring. Catfish, minnows and bream have been put into the lake already, starting the process of building an aquatic ecosystem in the creek bottom that will become the lake.

In spring lake chubsuckers and shad will be put in, and bass will be stocked in June. The fish being put in are very young, but will have more than two years to grow and mature before fishing takes place on the lake. Boll said there should be bass as large as seven pounds by then.