I'd recommend hiring a guide for a day if you seriously want to learn how to fish for river stripers. The really big stripers are not an easy fish to target, especially since they can move long distances depending on current, time of year, water temp, and forage availability. It could take you years of trial and error to learn what a good guide can teach you in one or two trips. Even if you do everything right, stripers don't always bite, and if you go out by yourself to experiment and don't catch anything, you may not know whether it's because you're doing something wrong, or whether the fish just aren't in the mood on that particular day.
The best choices for a striper guide around here would probably be Fred McClintock or Don Schliecher.
bd