Kiplinger Personal Finance's 2006 mutual fund review named the following fixed income funds the best of the best:

Fidelity Floating Rate High Income (FFRHX)
Dodge & Cox Income (DODIX)
Fidelity Intermediate Municipal Income (FLTMX)
Harbor Bond (HABDX)
Loomis Sayles Bond (LSBRX)

(P.S. The review was published in May, 2006.)

Bill Gross, the head bond honcho at Pimco, one of the nation's most prominent fixed-income managers, is the closest thing to a bond superstar. Harbor Bond (HABDX), which Pimco manages, returned an annualized 7% over the past ten years and hasn't finished in the bottom half of its peer group -- intermediate-maturity taxable bond funds -- since 1994.

Truth be told, Gross's moves in managing Harbor Bond are nowhere near as bold as his occasionally cataclysmic pronouncements. (For example, speaking of the U.S., he recently said that "we have exhausted our savings, lost our competitive edge and squandered our educational heritage.") He doesn't extend or shrink maturities in Harbor Bond by large amounts. And although the fund has profited lately from holdings in emerging-markets and inflation-indexed bonds, its holdings in nontraditional areas have been modest.