The effect of aging time, water salinity, and aging temperature on the structure and aqueous behavior of the water-soluble hydrophobically associating polymer is investigated by FTIR, DLS, rheological and fluorescence technologies. The influence of macromolecular composition and conformation on intermolecular entanglement and hydrophobically associating are explored. For different salinities, the thermal degradation binary kinetic equation with aging time and temperature are established. The results show that after shearing, the thickening effect will rise up in a certain time, due to the hydrophobically associating structure. And the thickening property is enhanced by moderate increase of hydrolysis level caused by aging effect.