Butterflying is a cleaning method that removes the backbone, rib bones, and entrails, while leaving both sides of the fish connected to each other and to the skin. To understand how it's done, you should look at an illustration of it. This summer I'm going to Provincetown on Cape Cod and want to fish for bluefish and striped bass. I'll be there in July and August and mostly surf fishing. When you're fishing from the surf you generally need a long rod to power a heavy lure or weighted bait out beyond the surf line.
Spinning tackle is preferred by most surf anglers.
Wet wading, or getting into the water wearing chest-high waders, will help a great deal when you have a shorter rod, as you can gain 20 to 30 feet of casting distance by getting into the water rather than fishing from the foam line on the beach. But every time that I refill my reels, the line becomes very lopsided on the spool. I've experimented with having the knot in every imaginable position on the spool, but to no avail. I think the issue is one of uneven line winding rather than the arbor knot, unless, of course, you really have a big, bulging knot. If the levelwind hesitates at one side of the spool before heading in the other direction, it will build up more line on one side of the reel.