Take care of yourself physically, especially your back, elbows and shoulders. Those are the parts of your body that will get the most wear and tear. Your back will take a beating in rough water, in any brand boat.
Wear long sleeves, and keep as little skin exposed as possible. Wear plenty of sunscreen on exposed areas. Skin cancer is very prevalent amongst fisherman, especially if you are fair skinned.
Make smart decisions about when to go and not go. Once you get out on the water, it's twice as bad as it looked from the shore. On large bodies of water watch the weather, if you're a long run from the ramp don't wait until the last minute, it can go from flat calm to 3-4 foot waves in minutes. If your line starts floating above the water or you hear a buzzing sound from your rod, you've already waited too long. Get the [censored] out of there asap.
Keep your boat well maintained and some tools to work on it, always have a sharp knife handy. Tell someone where you're going and when you plan to be back. Take an extra set of clothes, especially in the winter in case you fall in, and some extra food and water in case you break down and have to camp overnight. Make sure you're cell phone is fully charged before you leave, and you have the number for the game wardens programed into it.

Have fun! Be Safe!

You can catch fish in 2-3 fow on traps and chatterbaits when the water temp is 45 degrees.....in Jan and Feb especially on flats adjacent to creek channels with scattered hydrilla/grass. When you catch one fish that time of year stop and work area hard and be sure to take note how it bit......usually there are more stacked in area that time of year and you can rinse repeat and fill the boat with chunks. Like others have said keep it simple and don’t chase all the new craze and baits BUT don’t discount something new that works either.......hard balance. Lol

Oh yeah wear sun screen and/or sun shirts. My summertime uniform at your age was shorts and flip flops and sun screen was a thought. I now am 54 and go to the dermatologist every 6 months. They cut off something every visit and twice it has been skin cancer. So cover up or get ready to join a not so fun club.

Keep an anchor in the boat with at least 50 ft of anchor line in case you break down on the water and your trolling motor battery runs out and you are drifting ashore into rock, heavy timber or worst case a spillway. You don't want whoever comes to tow you to the ramp to damage their boat trying to get into the mess you drifted into.

https://www.boatus.com/landing/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx9vXoueD6gIVCQCGCh3dSAxqEAAYASAAEgIrXfD_BwE

A membership to boatus is a safety net for getting out on big water , they have a network of tow boats that will come save your azz.

Toilet Paper

1. Pick one lake and learn it well. Then add in another.
2. Pick a couple lures and learn those presentations well. Then add in a few others.
3. Find a mentor. (Most important)
4. Fishing pressure matters more than weather. I'd rather fish a east wind Wednesday than a west wind Saturday. All that said, you can't catch them at home.

Good luck and stay safe!

All good advice given.
Here is another tip -
When I got my first boat, I was so excited that I now had the ability to move around the lake and finally "go where the fish were". I caught less fish in the first three months of boat ownership than at any other time of my life. I was frustrated, angry and questioning my fishing ability.....
I made mention of it to my wife, who told me, " you spend more time running up and down the lake than you do actually fishing now". I thought this was probably the silliest thing I'd heard and headed out to the lake. It was early spring on Fork and I headed to my "spot", where I caught one fish. As I was sitting down to leave, my wife's words came into my head. I stood back up and re-fished the area I was in and slowed way down. I spent the rest of the morning in about a 2 acre pocket and caught a lot of fish that day, including one over.
Just because you now can run - doesn't mean you should.

Leave the boat at home and find some one or multiple some ones to fish with in their boat.
There is a partner finder section on here. Find a couple partners, help them with gas and
respect their boat and you will learn alot while doing it. (likely - both good and bad)

Oh, and strap in your rods before you go on plane.

Honestly the quickest way to learn a new body of water and/or new techniques is to fish with different people. I've learned more from my friends that I've either gone and fished with or invited to fish with me. But beware, if you fish tournaments you better stay off their sh!t! lol

One of the best questions I've seen asked in a long long time!! All advise is excellent. But, if I were to boil it all down to what seems most important TO ME through years of trial and error, mostly error...

-Hire James Biggs a couple of times to have him teach you how to break down a lake!!! Get him to meet you at your home lake if he can. He will save you many years of frustration in a few hours!
-pick a few techniques that pretty much work all year and learn those-texas rig, squarebill, wacky senko, Carolina rig.
-buy ONLY the few colors that work pretty much everywhere and don't buy because YOU think the color will work. Buy baby brush hogs, senkos, and flukes, in green pumpkin blue or green, watermelon seed-DONE
-buy the best quality graphs you can afford and use them to find areas that should hold fish, then fish primarily where you see a few fish. There are usually far more there than you see.-contact Slade Daugherty and have him tune your graphs and help you!!
-consider the time of the year, water temp, etc. and fish spots that are most likely to hold fish at those times. Don't force it by fishing where you want to fish. Fish high percentage areas as is harped upon by Donald Harper, he's no dummy!!
-finally, spend time on the water

Drop shot finesse worms and trick worms. Set up a rod for tx. rigging soft plastics.
Carolina rig super flukes, baby brush hogs, french frys and bubble frys.
Get you a rod for throwing shallow to medium crank baits as well as top water lures.
Watermelon colors work well on many lakes.
Use lighter colored soft plastics in clear water or bright skies and darker colors with either dirty water or dark skies.
Learn 3-4 good knots. Palomar, Pitzen, Uni and Alberto.
Learn how to read your depth finder. Study the lake you are fishing.
Balance your tackle, rod, reel and line for the technique you are going to use.

WOW! I never imagined so many of you would step up to the plate with such great advice from experience both on catching fish in the short-run (technique/gear/tips) and the long-run (safety). I'm humbled that you would all take the time to share your knowledge with me. I'll have to print out these responses and keep them close.

I am in Waco for now, I'll reach out to local clubs to get connected. If any of you come to the region it'd be an honor to take the backseat and learn from a day on the water with you.
God bless and good fishing to all!

One of the best things you can do is keep a log of every time you go fishing. Log things like Location, Date, Day of Week, Water Temp Start – End, Air Temp Start – End, Structure Type, Aquatic Veg, Weather, Wind MPH, Wind Direction, Water Clarity, Water Level, Contributing Factors, Total Number of Fish, Notes. Pressure High – Low, Moon Phase, Partner. You might want to get a pocket recorder and record the details of the day.

There is no such a thing as a boat that is too long, buy all the warranty you can.