Well found a good deal on a 2015 Jackson Cuda 12 so made the trade and now I'm a new owner.WTH....Might need some help or pointers or does and donts. If anyone is near the Burleson area and wants to take a newbie under there wing let me know

Welcome! You are gonna love your new yak.

Jackson are sweet. There is a ton of info on here for newbies. Check out the post everything you want to know about kayak fishing, its a stickey at the top here in the Yak section.

Some of the posts are older but the info still applies.

You got into fun, and even though it's a plastic boat, you can still spend a lot of money buying things for it.

im going on my lunch break today to buy a fish finder for it. im going with a Hummingbird Helix 5 DI

Pm me your contact info. I can show a couple of good places near where you live to get started on as early as next weekend. Id do it this weekend but im getting one last weekend of hunting in before bow season ends.

Keep your head inside the boat. Wear a life jacket.

I'm in Burleson, but too much of novice myself to give much more help than that.

I know plenty of spots for fishing. had a boat and know joe pool pretty damn good. bottom line is i dont know what in the hell im getting into. My biggest fear is dumping my A$$ in the water. also going to buy a fish finder and have no damn clue on the best way to rig it up. I know there is stuff on you tube but if someone has already done it and doest mind helping out then i would appreciate the help and ill supply the beer.

Take it out a few times before you start drilling holes or attaching things. See where you naturally lay things down or reach to.

Agreed ^^^^^
Kayaks are small so weight, layout and space are critical. There is no need to rush rigging things, take your time, use the yak enjoy and congrats.

Lol-
I bought my first kayak a month ago-
Did the 19.5 mile trip from hwy 16 to hwy 4 two weekends ago-
And last night bought a new OK Prowler 13-
I have a pontoon but I bet the toon is gonna get lonely this year-

If your are not used to kayak I highly recommend that you take it out on the water with no tackle or anything and get used to how it feels and learn just how far you can go before flipping.

The cuda is awesome you will like it!

Take Hog Hunter's advice. I fished out of my buddy's Pescador 10 a few weeks back to see how I would like kayak fishing after having bass boats for 13 years. I enjoyed it so that week I bought a Cuda 12. I didn't have any problems with the Pescador and figured the Cuda would be fail proof. So, on my first trip out in the Cuda I got very careless and ended up flipping it over. Lost a rod and ruined an iPhone. Totally my fault. I'm about 220 lbs and just leaned out of the yak too far in order to get something out of my crate. Anyway, wish I would have taken it out without gear and tested how far I could lean etc. Rookie mistake.

I'm going out Sunday with nothing but kayak and am going to get used to it

Wish I would have done that. I also bought rod floats from Bass Pro to wrap around my rods. They come with Velcro and can easily be removed. Tried to make some but they didn't work as well. A crate with a lid or top is also a good idea. After my mishap, I basically evaluated my whole set up. Now everything is secured to the kayak and waterproof where necessary.