OKEECHOBEE —  Compared to Friday’s phenomenal performance, Brandon Palaniuk had a slow Day 3. However, his previous heroics, paired with a solid third-round effort kept the Rathdrum, Idaho, angler atop the standings for the Champion Power Equipment Bassmaster Elite at Lake Okeechobee with a three-day total of 81 pounds, 1 ounce.

Palaniuk, a five-time Progressive Bassmaster Elite winner and two-time Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year, placed third on Day 1 with 23-7. A day later, he electrified the weigh-in by catching 34-10 — his personal best and the heaviest bag weighed in a Bassmaster Elite at Lake Okeechobee.

Carrying a lead of 9-12 into Semifinal Saturday, Palaniuk caught 23 pounds and expanded his lead to an incredible 18-3 advantage over Day 1 leader Greg DiPalma. He’s making no assumptions, but Palaniuk acknowledged a notable comparison to his first Elite Series trophy.

“What an unreal week it’s been,” Palaniuk said. “The very first Elite Series event I won (Bull Shoals Lake, 2012), they were dropping the water. It had dropped 7 feet in like two weeks, and I caught them on a deep crankbait.

“The water has been dropping here for almost seven weeks and I’m catching a lot of them on a crankbait. The irony in that is incredible.”

Palaniuk committed his day to the same spot he’s camped in since the start. Palaniuk’s running north of the takeoff site and fishing a canal off the Kissimmee River where a dam spillway creates feeding opportunities.

After catching his Day 2 megasack on aggressive moving baits, a slower third round saw him integrate a Neko-rigged green pumpkin Zoom Magnum Finesse Worm into his rotation. This, along with a Megabass Kanata jerkbait and a prototype Megabass crankbait produced his third day’s limit.

“I think pressuring the area for three days affected the fish,” Palaniuk said. “Three of us (also DiPalma and Tim Dube) beat on it pretty hard. I had some other opportunities; I just didn’t execute. I had one little window where I got them biting, but I just had too many missed opportunities.”

Explaining the obvious injury to his lower lip, Palaniuk pointed out another correlation to his first Elite win. During that Bull Shoals event, Palaniuk got a hook stuck in his finger and required an ER visit for removal.

Around 11 a.m. today he hastily scooped a fish that was barely hooked, and the awkward moment left the fish temporarily pinned to his face.

“One treble hook got stuck in my lip and one got stuck in my face,” Palaniuk said. “I had to take my face gaiter off and cut holes in it to get the treble hooks out. It was a little bit of a train wreck today.

“The hook in my lip wasn’t past the barb, so it popped right out. When the fish came up, she was one thrash from throwing the hook. I couldn’t stand that, so I’ll take a punch in the face.”

Palaniuk said he’ll devote his final day to the canal, but he’ll integrate lessons from his first three days. While he has moved throughout the canal, the key area is a high spot where fish move up to feed.

“Every day the wind has changed, so I’ve tried to adjust my angle,” Palaniuk said. “The biggest thing I’ve found is not blowing up on top of them.

“They’re not that deep, so they feel the boat presence. You’ll see them moving around, but they won’t bite, and they won’t set up correctly if you’re blowing up on top of them.”

Hailing from Millville, N.J., DiPalma opened with a Day 1 limit of 29-12, added 18-9 in the second round and earned his final-round berth with a Day 3 bag that went 14-9. For three days, he has started in the same canal as Palaniuk, but days 2 and 3 saw him include a spot 24 miles south into his game plan.

“I started in the canal today, got two keepers and then I ran to the same spot on the lake’s southwest side,” DiPalma said. “I literally put that fifth fish in the boat, and I said, ‘We’re going back.’

“I spent more time running than I did fishing today. As soon as I got back to the canal, I had maybe 20-30 minutes and I ended up catching a 6- or 7-pounder, which pretty much anchored my entire bag.”

DiPalma said his strategy centered on his final-round objective.

“I thought to myself, ‘It’s pretty important to make the Top 10, so I need a limit to, at least, make the Top 10,” he said. “I made the call to play it safe and then I went up there (to the canal) and got rewarded.”

David Gaston of Sylacauga, Ala., is in third place with 60-3. His daily weights were 14-11, 23-14 and 21-10.

Gaston has spent his time in the Indian Prairie Canal, where he’s mostly targeting prespawn fish that are coming out of the deeper channel and positioning along the riprap bank.

“You have to stick with that place all day, because there are a lot of big fish coming,” Gaston said. “Everything has been on a 1/2-ounce Chatterbait in the black/blue and golden shiner colors with a boot tail or minnow-style trailer.

“I can catch them on a wacky rig, a Texas-rigged worm and sometimes a frog, but a Chatterbait is the only thing I can keep in my hand and get them to bite on the bank, or out there in 3-4 feet of water. I can cover the whole place and comb it over.”

Gaston said the key to his presentation is to keep his bait low and grinding it along the rocks.

Gaston is in the lead for Phoenix Boats Big Bass honors with an 11-8. Gaston’s catch is the largest fish caught at Lake Okeechobee in Bassmaster Elite history. That fish also ranks as the 10th biggest and the 75th double-digit bass in Elite Series history.

John Garrett of Union City, Tenn., leads the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings with 202 points. John Cox of Debary, Fla., is in second with 191, followed by Gaston with 186, Bill Lowen of Brookville, Ind., with 182, and Wes Logan of Springville, Ala., with 182.

Evan Kung of Pickering, Canada, leads the Dakota Lithium Elite Series Rookie of the Year standings with 143 points.

Sunday’s takeoff is scheduled for 7 a.m. ET at C. Scott Driver Park. The weigh-in will be held at the park at 3 p.m.

Bassmaster LIVE will be streaming on Bassmaster.com, and coverage will also be available on FS1 on Sunday from 8-10 a.m. Stay up-to-date on all tournament coverage at Bassmaster.com/how-to-watch/.