I seem to have a really difficult time holding fish without them flopping and me either squeezing them too hard to hold on, or dropping them in the water.
So I got myself a nice catch and release net. I land them in it, keep them in the water, and use my hemostat to twist the fly out. If it's a picture worthy fish I'll pick it up for a quick picture, otherwise I just lower the net into the deeper water and off they go.